Oh....so Frust!

Yes, I am frustrated. No, wait.... I mean I WAS frustrated, which explains why I was M.I.A for a while.

No. 1 - Work. The facial expression above was what work made me feel for the past month. Well, it's not always like that. I enjoy what I do most of the time but sometimes you run into a brick wall and just as you've manage to find a mega drill to drill a hole through the brick wall, you realized that there's no longer any road ahead of you and now you're faced with the giant pacific ocean. So, what's next? Swim! Swim in search for the shore but luckily you CAN swim!

That's work, and then...

No. 2 - Blogger. Blogger has been updated with all these new features, format and what have you, which is really cool but kinda driving me nuts while blogging.

And finally.....

No. 3 - Blogger. AGAIN. To put it point blanc, my ENTIRE Galerie is GONE. All the more =.=". I downloaded some free template that you can get online as one of those blogger template hacks cuz I like it arranged in one of those picture viewer format-style but ever since Blogger made the latest changes and updates, the hacks probably not work with the new Blogger and the whole thing gone haywire and disappear! Luckily, I didn't lose the pictures but I definitely have to re-do EVERYTHING! Argh!

Dear Blogger,
Your Dynamic View comes a tad too late. -.- 

Oookay, that's my rant for now. Will update again later tonight. :)

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What's up, folks?

Aaaah, yes. And so I've been rather quiet the past month. Apart from my birthday month, a couple of other events came up as well. Mostly personal events.

Heeee... yeap, I got 2 birthday cake this year. Yay! :D The top one is the Baskin Robbins chocolate ice cream cake from Mum. The cake could have been better but since it was not ordered  in advance, they were stuck with what the folks at Baskin Robbins could whip up in that short span of time. It was still delish nonetheless!

And just in case you are wondering, 'Tan' is my family name. I seriously don't know why on earth my bro included my family name on the cake. It just look so odd. It made it sound so..... 'formal'? o_O

And the one below is from office. Also a chocolate flavoured. Chocolate sponge cake. They could have challenged my taste bud, really, since I've got a rather adventurous taste bud! But choco is still all good!

Also attended two weddings.

One traditional Chinese wedding. My cousin bro got married.

That's during the tea ceremony where I offered a cup of tea to my sis in law in exchange for a red packet or 'and pow' filled with money. It sorta means like an acknowledgment of the new addition to the family..... I think!

And as for the red packets, it's given out as the blessings from the newlyweds. I know what you're thinking. Shouldn't the newlyweds be GIVEN blessings instead of GIVING blessings?

Well, the GIVEN blessings part happened earlier on already wth the elders. Now it's the newlyweds GIVING their blessings to the younger ones.


And the other wedding I attended was a traditional Malay wedding.

Now, Malay weddings are different.

The bride and groom will sit on a 'pelamn' which is the two huge chairs to have guests offering their blessings to the newlyweds. The bride and groom will have both their hands on ther lap, palms down and blessings are given to the newlyweds by sprinkling 'rose water' on the newlyweds hands.

The 'rose water' here is actually just dipping a the rose flower on a stalk into water and then sprinkling it.

Actually, I think my friend (the bride) skip this step. Cuz I don't remember sprinkling any 'rose water' that day although I've always remember that as part of the tradition. I only remembered crashing the bride and groom on the 'pelamin' for photos. :P

Thing is, traditional custom weddings can be very elaborate and modern couple tend to skip certain step/ritual to simplified the process,

And another good news is a new addition to the family! :D

Sis-in-law gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Baby M is slightly over a month old now. Been spending every weekend for the past month at my bro's house in another town with Baby M.

Isn't she such a sweetheart!

What a way to end the first half of the year! I hope everyone had a good frst half of the year too!

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When opportunity comes a'knocking......

 And so, I've been really quiet lately.......

I know I haven't been blogging as often as I would otherwise have planned wanted to. I've been wanting to blog about this and have been putting it off until I know that unless I sit myself down in front of my laptop and start typing away, this post will never live to see the days of light. Okay, I don't know if grammatically, that made any sense, but you get the picture! :P

Thing is, so much has happened after Chinese New Year i.e. Februsry that I'm still trying to digest and settle into the new time table. Well, not so much that I don't even know where to begin but enough I guess to even caught myself by surprise. I mean, really, it wasn't even in my plan at all.

And so, you've read in one of the post before this that I recently joined the work force. Well, it wasn't something I deliberately planned for but it just happened. As bizarre as it sounds but that is exactly how it happened. I mean, seriously......it just came to me.

Okay, so this is what happened. My friend's husband is a lawyer and has a law firm. Just not too long ago he was looking for someone to help with some translation of documents from English to the Malay language. He thought of me who was unemployed free and asked if I would be interested in the job. Needless to say, I said yes. Ahem, you need some *ka-ching* for beads to continue making jewellery, right? *rolls eyes*

Anyway, those documents involved translation of a lot of legal terminology, of which that I can't just translate it as it is. Problem was, I didn't know what those terminologies in the Malay language were. At the same time, I was also concerned with the legal bearing those documents had from the legal standpoint. There were just too many that I was unsure with but yet it wasn't a situation where I'm gonna say, "Sorry, can't do it. Bye." I needed help.

Immediately I thought of my current boss. My current boss is a friend of my Dad and also someone I knew personally way back from my high school days. Back then, I was very active in the school's Interact Club and my boss was the Youth Director/Officer from the local Rotary Club of which Dad was also a member of. So if you guys know anything about Interact/Rotary Club, you'll understand how the two are linked together. Just like the Leo and Lions. If you don't, well..... google search! :P

So now you know how and where the connection comes from and the next is what actually happened.

So, I went to see him, asking for advice on the translation but he ended up asking me if I was interested to work in his firm.

Alright, thais wat what happened that day I went to see him. When I went to his office to see him, he was with a client and I was sent to see another lawyer for help. It turns out that there wasn't much that they could help me with and so I left. Just as I was walking down the stairs to leave, Boss was done with the client and called me back into the other lawyer's office and the exact exchange of words go something like this......

Boss : So, you're not giving tuition anymore? (yes, EVERYONE knows I was teaching....*sigh*.... why don't they know that I make jewellery too? *shrugs*) 

Me : Yeah.... *smiles*

And then he went on to ask me.....

Boss : Did you finish your CLP? (That's the Malaysian Bar qualification, a certificate one needs in order to practise Law in Malaysia)

Me : No......  (5 years ago, a few months down physiotherapy and the realization of what a mess I was actually in and how it was not possible for me to get back on my feet within the time frame I had in mind, I've already decided to give up on practising Law altogether)

*****

Alright, a little digression here to explain the 'within the time frame I had in mind' ....

5 years before the brain hemorrhage I had 5 years ago.....or in other words, 10 years ago, I was met with a motor accident from which I suffered from a severe head concussion and internal bleeding. Yes, blood clotting in the brain and blah blah blah. (Man, you have no idea how many times my brain has already been messed with!)

I was however very very fortunate. I not only miraculously survived but even recovered within a very short span of 3 months with no major physical setbacks and even the blood clot in the brain slowly dissolves itself over time without the need to undergo operation to remove it.

So, with this hindsight, I thought I was going to be alright in also a similar time frame or probably just a little more in time for the next CLP exam sitting.The hemorrhage happened not too long after my graduation, which means I have the degree but not the bar qualification.

But boy, did I misinterpret the situation! 4 months down physiotherapy, I came to the realisation how serious my condition actually was and then and there decided to give up pursuing a career in law already. It was ok really, cuz Law was not really my first career option to begin with! I wanted to be a fashion designer (don't laugh, ok!) but coming from a traditional Chinese family, this is not exactly an approved career choice. Probably also my only regret for not having the courage to be obstinate with my choice.

*****

Boss : You're not going to complete it?

Me : Erm, don't think so.

Boss : Why is it that you're not going into law?

Me : Well, the long hours, stress, pressure..... and all that. (I was still in constant contact with my college friends and I understood what the real deal was!)

Then, we went on into a discussion on what areas of Law that I was interested in and then he shoot me the question.......

Boss : Are you interested in conveyancing?

To put it simply, conveyancing basically deals with land matters such as the sale abd purchase or transfer of land.

Me : Huh? But I have no experience. o_O

Well, I don't. If you follow the chronological of events, I hadn't got the opportunity to seek employment. The hemorrhage happened right after graduation, well, while I was reading for my Bar exam to be precise and I wasn't physically fit to do anything at all.

Boss : Well, I guess you could always pick it up along the way.

Me : Why, are your firm looking for people?

Boss : Well, we're always looking for people for conveyancing.

And then, I think he's in a rush (he always is! LOLs....) to leave the office already.....

Boss : Nevermind, you think about it. If full day is too much for you, you can try half day for a week or two first to see if you like it. Just think about it and then give me a call.

Me : Ok ..... *smiles and nod my head*

And that was the end of our discussion and I went back. I didn't gave much thought into it though but later that day, dad told me that Boss called him and mention that he talked to me about this and encouraged that I give it a try. Mum also agreed and says that I should at least give it a try first before deciding whether you like it or not. If I don't like the work, I could always say sorry, I don't think the work is suitable for me and leave.

So, I called Boss up the next day and told him I'll give it a shot. He wanted me to come in the following week but because I still had some translation work on hand at that time, I could only went in the week after. But I did drop by his office briefly before I started.

I'm telling you, if that meeting was a job interview, it's dead sure that I'm going to fail so badly!

Boss : What do you want to do actually?

Me : I don't know actually. 

It's not a very impressive answer but I was only being  honest! Like I said, I've already decided from way back to give up law already and now I'm seated in a of a lawyer who is about to give me a job in his law firm, being asked what I wanted to do. What am I supposed to answer? o_O

Boss : I see that you are still very alert. It will be a total waste if you don't go into it.

By 'it', he meant the legal field. Thing is, outside people who don't really know me thought that my mental capacity is somewhat affected because of the hemorrhage. Well, I won't say that it didn't. Multi-tasking is one. But not in the way that most people in the unknown/unclear of my condition thought.

And then boss went on to hand me a contract and asked me to read through it.

Boss : Now, tell me, what does it says?

Me :  o_O !!!

I haven't looked through a contract since college days and the words they used.....ugh! Anyway, my eyes were scrambling through the documents trying to search for the key words......

Me : It's a ....... contract ......... for .......... the sale ........... of land.

Boss : Okay, tell me in one sentence what does the contract says?

???? !!!

I felt like I was transported back in time to a classroom back in college days. My tongue was tied.

You see, I've pretty much flushed whatever leftover that I still remembered from college days out my system already the day I decided to give up on it. And now this? Oh, boy ...... o_O Die!

Me : It's a contract ............... for the sale of ................... land.

Erm, not very smart. I know it's the same answer that I gave just now but I thought maybe by changing the phrasing a little, it might sound as though it was a new answer? Heh! Lame ....... but when one is desperate, you just do what you can to save your ass! LOL......

But then and again, I've got a sympathetic boss. He could see that I was struggling and he guided me to the answer. LOL.....

Alright, to cut a long story short, boss basically told me to come into the office for the following week to see if I like the work before deciding.

Well, I did as suggested. Went in for a week and found that the work was rather interesting which was how I ended up there for a little over a month already!

 This is what I now deal with everyday!


Anyway, there's still a twist to the the story of me and the workforce. But I'll keep that for later! Heh! ;)

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Just A Quick One!

Sorry for not been posting anything in a while! That was quite a draught, isn't it? LOLs.....

Sorry guys! Been quite busy since after Chinese New Year and just early this month, I've gotten myself a job at law firm. I'm employed. Er, Yay? LOLS.....

This was certainly not something deliberately planned for. I'll tell you how it all happened. Later. My boss wants to have a discussion with me later today.

No worries, I'll tell you all about it! ;)

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Gong Xi Fa Cai and Happy Valentine's Day!

 

While the rest of the world will be celebrating Valentine's Day this Sunday; on the 14th, Chinese worldwide will be celebrating Chinese New Year. According to the Chinese lunar calender, this is the year of Tiger which starts on the 14th February this year. And Chinese being Chinese, they love to get their respective Zodiac Horoscope forecast to see how their luck would be for the year. What they should do to make it better and what they should do to avoid any bad luck.  Sounds rather superstitious but then there's no harm knowing either.

Personally, I don't believe in the forecast cuz they were never true as far as I'm concern! I don't consider myself a superstitious person but then, every year around this time, when the tv or newspaper run an article on this during this period (which has also becomes cuatomary already by the way), I can't help myself from turning up the volume or stop to read when flipping through the papers. I think it has become some kind of a habit already. :P

But all in all, Chinese New Year is always about the food to me! LOL..... XD

If you haven't know about the Chinese New Year, you can visit here to learn more about the celebration. The do's and don'ts , preparation and what we do on this day. And do check out your luck forecast for this year as well! ;)

One of the tradition which (I dare say) kids are looking forward to and the adults probably dreaded is the 'Ang Pow'. ' Ang Pow' are red packets/small envelopes containing money. 'Ang' means red and 'Pow' means packet. During Christmas, people exchanges present but during Chinese New Year, married couple give 'Ang Pow' away to the unmarried juniors as blessings.

And guess who's giving 'Ang Pow' away on their blog?

No, not me. I'm not married and therefore not eligible to give you. :P

Wired Chinese Knot, anyone? That should give it away. Corra is giving away 15 'Ang Pow' to her blog readers, regardless of age or marital status. So, I thought you might wanna drop by to win yourself some good luck! ;)

And in the spirit of giving, I guess I'll give you guys something as well. As for what it is, come back tomorrow to check out what it is as I prepare them for you tonight! ;)

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What's up?

Sorry for my absence.........

Life's kinda mashed up for me since early of the year and up to this point. Things are a bit overwhelming for me that I don't even where or how to start sorting it out. But to sort it out I will and I MUST.

Now that I've got some of the distractions out of the way, will start to put The Work Room back in order again and eventually Atelier Wendy Sue as well.

I'll update soon!

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I hear wedding bells ringing.....

Well, not mine though. :P

It's been another crazy month thus far. Was over at Singapore last week to attend a friend's wedding.






I've got another wedding to attend in a couple of hours time AND another one next weekend in KL.

It's insane really, three weddings back to back on each weekend for this month of Nov! Can you believe that?

I'm close to say out loud to my friends.... "Csn you guys stop getting married already?" LOL......

I need a breather and so does my wallet! LOL.....

Okay, to those that may not know about the Chinese culture, we don't give wedding gifts to the couple. Instead, the custom is to give red packets containing discretionary amount of cash inside. The final ammount collected from the guests will normally be partial contribution towards the cost of the banquet and if the couple is lucky enough, there may even be some leftover cash after paying for the cost of banquet, for them to keep! :P

Well, that's Chinese weddings for you......

And I haven't even touch on the mind boggling details of a Chinese wedding ceremony yet!

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Operation failed!

So I tried dissecting my Ricoh Caplio R7 myself last night after countless searches over Google. It appears that this seems to be a common flaw with Ricoh cameras. So now you know, moral of the story : don't buy Ricoh.

To think that I was only singing it song of praises a couple of months back..... ugh~

But I really do like the camera though.

In one of the searches through some forum, someone open up his own camera and meddle with the lense a bit and it went back to working mode again.

So, I thought I could probably do the same by trying to figure out what could have gone wrong and secretly harbouring the hope that despite being the noob in gadgets, my camera might miraculously work again. I mean, who am I kidding?



Just in case you are wondering, this is taken with my phone's camera. Not too dodgy, aye?



Obviously, I dare not go past this stage of unscrewing the case. The surrounding lense area are neatly covered by pieces of metal. I dare not take out the tiny screws guarding the territory of the camera lense. It's as though it's saying 'Keep out! Tresspasser will be presecuted!' to me.

I know if I open up the screws there, everything will be beyond my comprehension. It's simply pointless. And so back it went to the service centre for a quotation of the repair cost.


*SIGH* .........

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Crap!

Oh, yea..... I'm feelin' real crappy now.

-_-

My Ricoh Caplio R7 decided to died on me today.

-__-

The camera lense is stuck open and I can't switch it on to take pictures.

Well, I can switch it on but it's like it wants to on, the lense zooming out and in ,tries very hard to on but in the end fails to on and the lense is stucked open.

-___-

Eeermmm...... something like a constipation? Okay, I admit, a very crude analogy there but I'm

-____-

Big time!

This is 7 months after I send them back for repair under warranty with also a problem with the lense.

-_____-

And now, the warranty has expired, in which case I'll have to pay for the repair now which would probably cost me so much that I might as well get a new camera! But I don't want to get a new camera cuz a new camera's gonna cost me even more $$$! But I'll feel I got ripped off forking out exhorbitant amount just for repairs!

-______-

I've just wrote in to the online site where I bought the camera from this afternoon. I don't fault the site. As a matter of fact, their service is very efficient and I'm very satisfied with their customer service.

It's just that I'm impatient to wait for their reply tomorrow and ended up googling for the error message on the displayed on the LCD screen. It turns out to be a common design fault with the camera.

-_______-

From what I could decipher, it's gonna cost me a lot for the repairs that I might as well dissect it myself. After all, I haven't got anything to loose given the expired warranty.


-______________-

Oh, crap!

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Plymouth Hoe

Plymouth is located down south of England and surrounded by sea and the weather there is relatively warmer than other parts of England. As compared to the other cities, Plymouth can be considered as quite a new city and even their buildings and city structure are more modern. Well, I really like it a lot there.

The first place that Mary took us to was Plymouth Hoe. Plymouth Hoe, referred to locally as the Hoe, is a large south facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth.




Talking of cousin Mary, this may probably sound a little bizarre. Can you believe that in this UK trip that is actually the first time I'm meeting Mary despite being cousins? (Unlike Judy, who I foundly call Ju, who I literally grew up with and used to stay behind my house)

I mean, it's unlike the case with a friend whom you met, starts a friendship and then lost contact and then meet again after years later. If you're cousins, then technically you are in that sort of relationship since birth right?

What's even more ironic is that we were both from the same high school and I remember seeing her face back in high school but not knowing that we were related at all, although she doesn't remember seeing my face in school at all.

Well, she was my senior back then and the moment I saw her face, I know I've seen that face from somewhere but just couldn't recollect from where and then it just hit me! She was from my school!

How bizarre is that?

Wondering how we are related? Well, Mary's grandmother and mine are sisters. Yea, it's considered distant cousins already but I come from a very big extended family where the older generation was once a very close knitted bunch upholding blood relations. Which is why and how I came to met up with Mary who has been residing in Plymouth for the past 8 years already.

To be honest, I think my family history is so dramatic that I could even write a book on it! LOL..... :P

I'm serious! I am the 3rd generation of a Chinese imigrant family in Malaysia. My grandfather is the first and my father the second. The first generation still has some ties with China and up until my father's generation, the family was still practising some of the traditional Chinese culture despite a modern exterior.

What I like the most during family gatherings is to listen to the old time stories being told by my aunts. It's something like how Joy Luck Club was I think! LOL.....

But that's a different story altogether and I'm digressing already....

Okay, okay, back to The Hoe. The atmosphere was great and the view there... just fantastic!

The weather wasn't at it's best, but it was still great!




After a stroll along the walkway,




we stopped at this Waterfront restaurant for a drink.






What was initially intended to be just for a drink ended up to be a feast! LOL..... XD

Well, not exactly a feast since we went there right after lunch. So, it was quite an odd hour to be feasting already. :P

It so happened that the restaurant was having an Oyster Fest that day. There were not only fresh oysters but grilled lobsters as well!










'Fresh local lobster served here daily'


The long queue for lobsters.... o_O


So yea, we were enjoying some seafood while taking in the view.






Burp!



Sitting facing the sea.......



Accompanied by a live band!




Jaaang! .... I mean, simply the best! =D

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I'm back!! But........

........................................................................................................................................................................Work Room chat:
This segment has somehow been made redundant in the advent of Twitter.... o_O
........................................................................................................................................................................




......... everything's in a mess!!


As though relocating to some place thousands of miles away for 6 months and then back is not bad enough......



I've even yet to unpack my luggages!


My family decided to move house when I was not around! o_O Yes, I meant H.O.U.S.E. Quite an impromptu decision, I'ld say.

Well, the thought has been playing in our mind for a while now but it was definitely not planned for. Like, how out-of-the-world is that? o_O

Unsurprisingly, all my stuffs were just shoved into boxes waiting for me to sort it out. And I'm having a really hard time sorting them out because even my allocated room is lacking the furniture needed to store all my stuffs!! Major headache!

Boxes and boxes of stuffs with my belongings.... some emptied and some not....



I believe some of my tools are somewhere in here..... o_O" A near hair pulling experience, I'm telling ya!



The first time I've ever moved house in the past 20 odd years of my life!

And I've yet to recover completely from the jetlag.......

Still feeling kinda lethargic on most days and it's almost a week already since I was back in homeland.

Good lawd, tell me this has not been one hell-a-vu crazy year! o_O

Exactly when do you think I can sit down in peace and solitary and start creating again ...... ? The present environment just doesn't seem too encouraging enough..... -_-

I seriously need to get my routine back..... all these moving about is just too overwhelming...... o_O (yes, I realize I've got a lot of these odd emoticons throughout the post... -_-..... sorry, can't help it! That is exactly my situation right now!)

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How could I......

........................................................................................................................................................................Work Room chat:
I'm coming back home next week. Been trying to sort my stuffs out and do the packing. Working on a couple of tutorials too. Also been working on a commission piece which is due for delivery when I touch base in Malaysia! Yikes! o_O
........................................................................................................................................................................


....... not love Plymouth?




Because it's down south, the weather there is relatively warmer and because it's surrounded by the sea, you get all these awesome view!




Just got back to Nottingham a few days ago. Plymouth has been great, I must say. Apart from the great weather and awesome view, did and eat lots of stuffs there too, most notably some out-of-your-routine kinda thing. Will try to blog about it.

Meanwhile, why don't you take in the view as well? ;)

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