2008 in a blink of an eye

Major changes in 2008 are the flight back to Malaysia, the beginning of a new chapter in my life and the end of receiving an allowance from parents

Learned a lot from the working world, from how to go about working to dealing with people.

Maintained my relationship with E
Despite spending a lot less time together, we are still strong and very much in love, feels like we've been together forever but at the same time the spark of a new love is still in the air, well at least for me la, i feel it =)

Closer to my sister and my mom, and constantly reminding myself how lucky i am, just having both parents with me especially after seeing a friend's bf lose his father. Also began talking to my father about financial world (listening and asking mostly)

Did 2 weeks of charity work, it was an eye opener, the half a page essay this 10 year old boy wrote made me wanna sob

Maintained friendships with SC and LC despite the distance (Melb, Spore), with AN and JK, with the VU gang, with DL, with the closer few old school friends.

Made tonnes of new friends, my batchmates at work are more like my 4th year of uni friends.

I love how everyone has been so nice

Did not meet my lose weight target by the first deadline or the extended deadline. This is so gonna be another recycled resolution. Hey, at least i didnt GAIN any more weight. This senior i knew gained 20kg in the 4 years since she started work, aka on average 5kg a year. Not gaining at all this year is pretty good!

Managed to blog consistently.

Took up Pole Dancing, stopped eating nasi lemak for breakfast. Missed 2007 and Australia ever so often. Flew to Australia alone.

Took far less photographs this year than last year. Forgot almost every birthday i remembered last year. Cried on average once a month (once in two months maybe, in 2007)

In short, 2008 is a simple year, just surviving is an achievement. 2008 is the first time i started asking stupid questions like "What is the meaning of life?", "Is there more to life than this?", its the year i started feeling so trapped, so depressed, and so old...

Resolutions status: Pending

Christmas 2007 and 2008

Last Christmas eve, Sue Lin was a cashier-cum-waitress on shift in Bayside Mall, Frankston

and she broke a wine glass in the kitchen! Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

One year since THIS

December in Melbourne (2007)

The jackets i brought home from Aust are still wrapped up in a plastic bag. I took a jacket to bring to the cinema yesterday, nostalgia swept over me

Smells like Australia, the detergent i use for all my clothes, brings back instant memories, the same smell i take in as pull my doona covers up to my chin before i sleep, in my double bed bedroom on Burns Street every night for 11 and a half months. I miss 2007 like shit

December 2007 in Sydney's Star City Casino or something like that

The Swarovski decorated Christmas tree (2007)

My poser baby E (2007). Feels like we've been together forever!

Our 5th Christmas together (2008) in Midvalley

and many more to come

Last but not least,

Cupcakes lil sis and i spent an hour this afternoon decorating! =)

I Love the Firm i Work For

and i hope thats not the first and last time i'm saying that

They gave us a FREE firm declared holiday on the 26th December!

AND i discovered that we can take free half a day off today too! (Its actually for Christians, which i'm not but its alright, just means i wont be able to take half a day off before Chinese New Year)

=) Had a 9 hour date with E who took the day off. Lunch, a movie - Cicakman 2 (the first one was good, the second almost put me to sleep), hung out, dinner, spent some quality time together! =)

Going to watch Prison Break now. Hey, people really make auditing sound worse than it really is, look at me, i'm FINE! =)

Or maybe i'm just one of the lucky few =P

Thirrrd Stock Take and counting

I'm drowning in work the whole week cuz i was so insistent on going for the stocktake but i dont regret doing it. It was quite an experience, never would i normally walk into boutiques with salesmen wearing tuxedos.

But as an auditor, i parked in Pavilion at 7.30am and wandered around cautiously, following the directions i sought from the directory. Found the boutique, felt weird. Job is to observe the stock count.

When the staff is done with the first count, i asked the manager if one of the staff could assist me in the List to Floor Testing, basically where i pick the expensive stuff on their stock listing and DEMAND to see the goods. Hahah

So i picked whatever with a huge exorbitant price tag. Most of them were not memorable but...

There was this watch i randomly picked, the sales guy opened the glass cabinet and presented me with the shiny thing. I am to look at its boring label to match its item code to the black and white stock list but i was instantly mesmerized by this beauty.

Instead of 12 numbers on the face of the watch, there were 12 different coloured diamond, in the order of the rainbow. Awww, i love it! So glittery, shimmery and pretty! "So nice", i exclaimed before returning to the work i was supposed to do.

Back to the listing and item codes. God, the price tag on the listing shocked the hell outta me! RM38,100! "Wow, its more expensive than my car!", i said out loud. And the sales guy said that its solid gold.

God, almost 2 years salary! HAHAHA, crazy.

While waiting for them to do some shit, i watched as they opened the outlet at 11am and customers started comin' in: I saw this China woman and her much older white husband, she was carrying an awful LV bag and her little girl was with her, there was more foreigners, and then there was this Malay family.

Why can't my father be like the father, so filthy rich, why cant my father bring the family shopping on a bloody TUESDAY morning? Why dont some people need to work?

Needless to say, the Malay family walked out the shop with a purchase.

While i had to rush off to the next client in Bangi to look at more documents,
taking with me, only more homework!

Super Busy

But i dont feel stressed,

and i don't feel like quitting at all

Got lots to say, but not today

So tired

Fit Pole

To me, YOGA's BORING. Pole dancing's the way to go!

Thanks to a colleague who dragged me into something, which led me to re-meet she who invited me to go for classes at VivaVertical with other colleagues via Facebook (with the title of the message: There's nothing like a good stick between your thighs)

Prior to that i never hung out with them, but after a few classes together, these girls and i are pretty ok! =) Just went out in a group on Sat (and i introduced them to E =)

It's called the Pole Sit

In October all my colleagues stopped the class =( I joined another class and met KS who was even more addicted to pole than me. She's a management consultant in a very reputable firm! She's also joining pole with her colleagues! Haha.

So, u see, don't label all women in collar shirts and pencil skirts boring k? =P

A few weeks after the above picture, i could finally let go

Horrid angle cuz my phone's on timer on the floor. I have another pic with me trying to look at the cam but this one is better cuz u can see all the pain in my face in the other pic! Hahah

Ignore my fat thighs and u can see the muscles in my right arm! I don't know how many of my t-shirts have become too tight at the arms... i'm turning into the Hulk! Noooo

But this she-Hulk can still smile so sweetly ok?

HAHAHAHA, perasan but i love this picture la, the lighting, my eyes, my smile and the angle casts the illusion of a really thin Sue Lin

Some things can be so irritating...

... it makes me just wanna bang my head against the wall

Deep breath, it will all be worth it...

Cant wait till the day i can blog about it all

Dunno if i can ever blog it all. Two times i was honest and my honesty was used against me, makes me think twice before sharing my thoughts and publishing my soul

Early Christmas Present

E called me while i was at work on Thursday and told me that there was a makeup promotion going on in his office building. Asked me if i wanted anything from Christian Dior.

I was like, "Awww, but i'm broke!"

He gave me a pleasant surprise by saying "Nevermind la, i'll buy for u"

=) =) Soooo sweeet! Lucky i was the only one at client's that day, all alone in the meeting room so no one asked me "Why are u smiling?"! Haha

His colleagues advised him to get me this travel set with the free white bag. Damn nice right? =)

Lipgloss is a bit too light for my liking, i prefer darker stuff but its alright, so happy! =)

Ridiculous

Never into that kind of exercise, i personally find it boring. But whats on the front page of our newspapers these days, its ridiculous

Thats all.

Going to bed after 1am every night cuz am too addicted to True Blood, getting up at 6.30am everyday to drive to Kepong, the drive to Kepong ain't so bad but the drive home can be more unpredictable than Melbourne's weather. Client's nice and helpful, love clients who go home at 6pm and ask u to go home too.

Too tired to give ya a picture post, sorry. There is still Prison Break to watch! =)

Ohhh and i never thought taking exams would be good news but i am shit happy to start my Professional paper on 1st Feb! =)

My 'cubicle' at work

One thing i like about my work is that i dont have a little cubicle to go to everyday.

New environment every few days.

Sometime August after i got my new phone

And then it was a long off peak period for me with no clients to go to before i was sent to audit the unit trust:

Seriously, it was more cramped up than it looks

Look at this room the next client gave us:

Feels like... ur one of those special ones in Heroes and u are captured and being observed in this room...

And this is NOT what auditing should be like:

Auditing is not supposed to be All U Do Is Tick. But the previous year auditor certainly did that. AHAHAHA, had a good laugh

The next client seemed cool, they print packaging for cigarette companies, look at their shelf on display

But thats all thats cool about them, it was SPLITTING HEADACHE auditing them, so many issues and exceptions. And i had to drive all the way past the Subang airport to end up in this ulu place:

Factory area. See my lil trusty Kancil? I think i hurt it going through 12km of bumpy roads for 6 days =(

Last but not least. What i wore to work.

On a SUNDAY

At LEAST we get to park in the building on Sundays, and Saturdays and after 6pm on weekdays. Certainly helps reduce the pain of going to the office after working hours.

Study break has ended, i am not burdened with exams for some time but it means back to WORK. Help me...

All i have to look forward to is 3 public holidays in Dec, another 3 in Jan, a short February and slug through March and i'd reach the one year mark, baby!

Cant wait cant wait. Time, please fly!

Happy Happy Happy!

Mom won tickets from Discovery Channel for me, beats me why Discovery has a contest for the Quantum of Solace, but what the hell, Premier Class in Signature GSC! =)

First time there and free popcorn lined the seats waiting for us! Yeah!

Doesn't matter if we didn't get the blankets other bloggers keep talking about, pretty comfortable even without. And got free drinks too

The happy couple:

with our tickets:

The movie? Errr... Casino Royale was much better lah.
Thats all

We shall move on. To something i'm DYING to blog about. Did ya notice? Did u? Did u! Did you??

Was trying to be both humble but obvious at the same time... Hehe, lame, whatever, over the moon with my first intangible asset =)

Doesn't meet the recognition criteria of asset but --stops the accounting talk-- whatever.

I've bought www.baybeetea.com and I am shit happy =) =)

Try it =) But all it does now is redirects to my Blogspot. Again, whatever, i'm HAPPY!

How was it possible? I know people who know people! HAHAHA, just felt like saying tht, too happy.

Special Thank You to her and him!

Cockroach in Jogoya? Nevermind lah

Yes, u read me right.

Spotted:

Cockroach

By the Haagen Daaz ice cream

in posh RM88++ per head Japanese buffet restaurant in Star Hill

And the reaction of Malaysian to the little roach? NOTHING. Not one person in the very long queue for the ice cream took notice!!!!!!

When i took pictures above, my colleague was scared that we might get scolding for taking pictures of the cockroach.

HELLO, who's in the wrong here?!!!!!

It was a free department social gathering dinner thingie, so i told one of the planners, he's an Executive Senior in our firm, equivalent to Assistant Manager. And he was like "Really ar?"

I showed him the pictures and then he said "Never mind la"

I told the other girl, also a co-planner, she said "Actually i saw it too", giggle and she was reluctant to discuss it further

OH MY GOD. I was so baffled and, and... speechless, i didnt bother telling the bosses, after all it was us who were dying to go to Jogoya!

Their reactions made my heart sank and i just gave up.

God god god, RM88 per head and all those other people who actually paid for the damn dinner out of their own pockets didnt say a thing????????

In Malaysia, 5 Star Restaurants get away with roaches running about (yeah there was not one but two), ministers get away with...

Makes my blood boil. Furious!

Monday night and that place was packed like it was just RM8.80. Gosh. Its overrated. I cant believe i wanted to go there for over 2 years, so desperate to go that i cried more than once.

Sigh, i had lots of scallops tho =P Prior to Jogoya, i NEVER knew scallops had shells. My first taste of scallops was in Chinese 10 course dinners (without shells) and i only bought them raw/cooked (also without shell) in Australia where scallops damn huge!


They were everywhere in the buffet. I feasted on them silly, the shells piled up on my side of the table, so many helpings till i was sick of them that night. Now i kinda wanna eat them... thats one reason why i am usually anti-food blogs, they make u wanna eat at 1.36am

Ignore the pink arrow, ask if u are interested.

Overall verdict? Food's good, interior's cozy, nice for family gatherings, couple seats are cute and tight but i don't think its romantic at all, the ones i passed by anyway. But by the end of the night, the place has lost its novelty. Once is enough. I won't be going back, not for RM88

E is right for not wanting to go there, he doesn't eat 90% of the seafood served, paying RM88 for him to go for the buffet ain't logical. My head knew it all along but my heart was so envious of her and the one who got my dream birthday (her bf brought her to Jogoya and then to Avril's concert).

Now u know my jealous side, the green monster that i never showed on my blog before this. Haha. Three cheers to the company i work for. Thanks to them, i've been to Jogoya (for free, heheh) and i can laugh at how stupid i was =P

Sundays

My father was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday and was told to rest at home

I am on study break this week and it was kinda nice having my father around. We talked quite a lot =)

The maid cooked a feast every night come dinner time (Sydney aunt and uncle is here visiting too), we never have such fancy home cooked dinners unless it is a Sunday. It was really nice to have the whole family sit together for dinner for so many nights in a row

Everyday felt like Sunday. To me, a Sunday never feels like Sunday unless my father is around. Any day can feel like a Sunday when he is at home.

That Saturday

I didn't even know that my father was not well for 3days, he sent my sis to school, went to work from 9am to 9pm like normal. Unlike me, he never complained much. He slept early, i just thought he was tired.

Mom told me she was bringing him to the hospital to get checked yesterday morn. Did a brain scan and my father called me (while my mom drove) to say that he had blood clots in his head! And he was going for an operation in Pantai in Bangsar.

My father sounded normal, convinced me that it was all alright. Still. I cried a tear or two.

I badly wanted my Saturday to be normal so i went home (from the routine Sat breakfast with E). Did some stupid work and went for my 1.50pm gym class. My bro, sis and maid went to the hospital earlier

Forgot to bring my phone, took my time in the shower, went home to find an sms from Mom saying that my father's operation is at 5pm. Damn, its almost 4! I rushed to get to Bangsar, i knew i needed to see him before they took him away for the operation. I had a feeling that we wouldn't be able to see him from 4.40 or so.

I didnt make it in time, when i got there at 4.20, he was already in the operation theatre. Kinda wanted to cry.

Had to push out negative thoughts, thoughts that i couldn't help thinking, like "What if the worst happened and that i didnt get to see him BEFORE he left the operation?"

Would going to the gym be something i deeply regret? I thought back to the few past few days when my father was sick, i was so busy with work (and i came home quite freaking late) that i didn't really get to talk to him to notice he was sick, let alone hug him, something i haven't done since i cant remember when.

Hung out with bro, mom n sis in the cafeteria and my bro asked me "Why are u so late?". I mumbled, i couldn't tell him that i went to the gym, i couldn't look at him in they eye.

It was quite a long wait for the operation to be done, had to keep on telling myself that it was gonna be ok.

And thankfully it was, the operation was a success! I don't know how much regret there'll be inside of me and how long it will eat me alive if things turned out differently.

I am SO thankful

Great

My precious baybeetea name has been stolen

Recent Google searches and Live searches reveal other people calling themselves baybeetea, exactly MY spelling out there.

Most of them created this year! Dammit, i've had this name since 2000 (in yahoo mail and since 2003 in blogspot).

Its been 8 years, its MINE! =(

I need to do something about it. Shit. Anyone know how to trademark names? How much does it cost? I need to do something. I am so pissed.

Peak'a Boooo

It just crept up to me and said BOO

The PEAK PERIOD is HERE and i didn't know it till yesterday!! HAHAH

I read it here, but i didnt think it applied to me! =P

Which makes sense, thats why i haven't had time to blog

Which makes sense, i mean, its been so so long since a had a full chargeability. The fortnight ending 31st Oct, i'll charge 100% to clients. No more Available Time

Which is funny, this week i've worked in offices in Damansara Heights, Shah Alam and i'll work near the Subang Airport, all in one week man!

How i wish i could say Denmark, Spain and South Africa instead! HAHAHA, dream on

Australia Spring 2008

Day 1, i lugged my giant luggage across Southern Cross and tried finding my way around the station. Memory's rusty, took the wrong train...

Simple day, a rainy walk along Chapel Street, i never went there in 2007. Dinner at bestfriend's place. Met her local Aussie boyfriend of Greek descend. He's nice and he makes her happy. I approve!

Day 2, met up with Aunt and cousins. Aunt brought me shopping! I bought my very first pair of Nine West!

Didn't wanna throw the box away but i had to =( Its so pretty

Day 3, went back to the house i used to call home to gather the stuff i left in boxes neatly in the closet.

Ended up chucking most of my stuff into the recycle bin with the yellow lid. Some went into the charity bin. Then went to meet my old boss and have lunch, he gave me 20% staff discount! =)

Then i went to the beach to sit on the sand and reminisce

In the evening i had dinner with PN, Vietnamese food and hung out in Starbucks discussing photography =P

Day 4, bestfriend and i shopped, and then yummy Thai dinner with bestfriend, LF, DL and RC. So nice of them to come out and meet me plus send me off to Southern Cross where i took the CountryLink overnight train to Sydney. Alone.

Day 5, YW came to pick me up from Sydney Central in the morning. I bought us Krispy Kreme and she brought me to this cute coffee place along King Street.

Its just a short walk from where she lives. Sydney Uni Village is beautiful!!!!

Honours student YW had lab and mice to attend to so i was on my own most of the day. Nice Thai lunch tho, green curry pork! Love the atmosphere of the restaurant she brought me to.

She handed me a map and told me to visit The Quadrangle on uni grounds. I had no idea what i was looking for but i found it and its like a scene from Harry Potter.

Building with four corners and a field in the middle. There was a couple making out on the grass and i so felt like taking a picture of them, the girl was on top of the guy! Hahah

One of the corners. Why can't Monash Clayton be like that? Or Peninsula or Berwick?

I wanted to check out the touristy spots at night. Last Dec, when i was there in Sydney with the family and the boyfriend, we saw these sights during the day. I wanted to see it by nightfall.

Right choice! Darling Habour:

I wish i didn't bend my stupid leg. Really nice pic otherwise.

My old tuition friend WC was nice enough to meet up with me and the 3 of us walked to the Opera House

Pictures with people in it on my camera turned out bad, still waiting for WC to send me the ones he took on his 7.0megapixel camera phone

Structures turn out well tho =) Sydney Habour Bridge

Played Diner Dash on YW's Nintendo DS till 4am. Its amazing how i managed to get up in time to catch the 9.15am train to Newcastle on
Day 6

Sitting there on the train, starring out the window at the countryside, all alone, on that damn 3hour train ride, I FELT LIKE A BACKPACKER! Hahahahaha

Camwhored while waiting for PL to come pick me up from Warabrook station.

Its so hot in Newcastle, PL came wearing shorts, and she stared at my winter jacket like said people would think u are crazy. HAHAHAH. What to do, i came from Melbourne.

She made me lunch, we catched up. Then we headed to the beach for a dip, love love the waves, stupid of me to leave my camera on the sand, no good pix there.

It got cold and windy in the evening, exactly when we decided to have ice cream. We were shivering!

My leg turned to stone! Look:

Haha, lame. But it was fun =)

She brought me to dinner at Goldberg. Their pasta is so so good, the best food i ate in my trip. And then we shared Newcastle's specialty dessert: Sticky Date Pudding

Love the ambiance there, worth every cent of the $25 i paid with my Commonwealth Debit Card (treated her to dinner for giving me a place to stay)

After dinner, we took the bus back and my dear friend was so blur we missed the stop and had to walk through her campus in the cold! Damn funny, we were freezing! They had a Commonwealth Bank branch on their campus! Hahah, but its such forest at her campus than it is at mine!

Day 7 was Korean food in Strathfield for both lunch and dinner, before and after shopping in Sydney's DFO.

Stupid little me had some problems with her return ticket, they printed the wrong date and i didn't check properly! Thankfully, they changed it for me FOC =)

Day 8 at Parliament Station. Thats where bestfriend worked the 7am shift so i went over for some Coffee HQ.

Look at all those people dressed in black on that Monday morning, scurrying off to work. I was so glad to be on annual leave! Oooh RC was one of them! HAHAHA poor soul. When he comes to visit Msia next yr, it'll b his turn to laugh at me.

I walked along i-forgot-what-street,

Admired Cathedrals. Walked along Collins Street, saw two of the Big Four accounting firms and i wondered...

Walked to the park and lay on the grass...

It was good just starring at the sky, not having to worry about work =P

In the afternoon, Masters student bestfriend wanted to go to the State Library so i tagged along. That woman doesnt know how to work a photostate machine so i did it for her

Love the interior of the library, so ancient. And love what my new purple Sony Ericsson camera phone =)

Nice dinner at Fratelino's, where bestfriend's housemate works. Good quality time chit chating, killer good salmon thin crust traditional oven baked pizza. And not to mention the "hot pizza boy" as she calls him...

Day 9, god, guess what i did on Day 9?! I woke up at 5.45am to go to the gym for a 6.15 Bodypump class but i walked the wrong way and ended up in Toorak train station, which is at the other end. I was so pissed. I walked so much that by the time i got to the gym i avoided the treadmill at all costs. Too late for my class too! =(

Bestfriend and i waiting for the tram to the city, where we shopped along Swanston Street before heading down to Clayton for ex-housemate HS's graduation ceremony!

Me, HS and her S'porean bf F. In the background is B smiling at the camera!

LF and i. Goodness, she's graduated, i still remember meeting into her in Sunway College's 4th floor toilet, she fell and her knee, or was it ankle, was bleeding. She was a MUFY student while i was in AUSMAT. Pre-University days!

At night bestfriend and i had Ying Thai 2 (really bad service but really good food) and Dolce Freddo's ice cream! We walked along the Yarra River, watched the flames at 11 o clock outside Crown Casino. I went in to lose some money and to pick up the free poker magazine Bluff

Day 9, was a simple day at St Kilda

with bestfriend and DL on the tram. Ate scallops and Golden Gaytime ice cream!

Went back to finish up my packing and got ready for my flight back to Malaysia

That sums up my 10 days, 12 nights (2 nights in the plane, 2 nights in the train, 8nights on mattresses) in Australia. Spent RM5,800 on flight, food, transport and shopping.

Less than one week after my return, the STUPID Australia forex dropped like mad! I could have had the same trip but save RM1,000 if i went slightly later =(

Gotta go, working on another unit trust fund tomorrow. And i just found out tonight! Thats the life of this auditor