Tuesday, January 31, 2006
~ 9:21 PM ~
So i got my acceptance package + contract today. I will definitely reject it. Why?
did not even say where I would be placed in Japan (to find out 2 weeks prior to arrival - err dodgy)
probationary period of 3 months - im only planning to go for one year, and they want to dock my salary for 25% of that time? *pffft*
only 10 personal days/leave ? *eek*. I get 20 annual leave + 10 sick at my current workplace, and its not enough. 10 is definitely way too little to see Japan !
No completion bonus
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Sunday, January 29, 2006
~ 7:00 PM ~
...Purely for my selfish viewing pleasure...
*Phwoar* I have found my new eye candy.
.That.is.all.
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~ 10:08 AM ~
Gong Xi Fat Chai! =) Hope the year of the dog brings you lots of asian prosperity and success (teehee)... Also hope you get lots of ang-pows.
My brother is in Malaysia at the moment. I'm so jealous because I can just imagine the mountains of delicious foods, the doting ang-pow givers and the festivities of a holiday based in Asia.. *green with envy*.
Anyways, just a quick post :) I'm off to the markets now :)
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Friday, January 27, 2006
~ 7:41 PM ~
Of course, yesterday was one of kae's favouritest ever public holidays - Australia Day. I love Australia Day because it's the one time of the year that Australians seriously flock and band together to celebrate something as a nation. Do you see it happening any other time? *uh-uh!*. hehe
Anyways, this year saw us down at South Perth foreshore again, with our fabulous $5 each gazebo, our aussie eski and beers just to blend in :) Had a lovely relaxing time, but was somewhat disappointed by the crappily slow fireworks... *pop*.... *pop*..... take a break ... *pop*... *pop*.... hmm yes...
[ Fireworks from South Perth foreshore]
Who is this random little boy i hear you ask? Well, Asians are NOTORIOUS for their use of child labour in their little delis and restaurants. But this boy tops the cake. This 6 year old boy was wandering around south perth by himself selling Aussie flags. Of course, being the cutie that he was, everyone bought one off him - and we nabbed a photo with him! *score*. Actually, he probably made more money than the adults - smart lil boy :)
Update on Japan
In other news, I got a job offer this afternoon to go teach in Japan - albeit from a company that i *dont* want to work for.. but anyways, its an option.. But im still waiting for the one i *do* want to work for - whose interview is next week. *fingers crossed*
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Tuesday, January 24, 2006
~ 6:43 PM ~
I read it. I saw it. I dislike it.
Having followed the development and making of the movie, I finally dragged my boyfriend along to see Memoirs of a Geisha the other night.
I waited in line for what seemed like eternity, and panicked into a lost cause as I saw the board above the counter flash "limited tickets left" next to the movie I wanted to watch... but - no need to panic. I managed to get the tickets and rushed my boyfriend into the cinema where we took our seats in the front row, in the corner (bad bad bad).
Anyways, having read Arthur Golden's novel, I must say that the movie certainly did bring the vividness of my imagination to life. The sets, the colours, the kimonos - they were all that I had imagined, and in that respect, the director did a fantastic job conveying the feeling of the geisha world . Aspects of the casting too were amazing, especially Gong Li as Hatsumomo who did an amazing job with her stellar glare, and her ferocious beauty, and of course, the young actress who played Sayuri/Chiyo, who was incredibly gorgeous and conveyed the emotions of a little girl lost perfectly.
And that's where it all crumbled. Aspects that were important to the development of the storyline just were not there. There was no emphasis placed on the role of Nobu, and his never satisfied relationship with Sayuri, there was no role for the fierce upbringing and strict rules of the okiya, of granny and of mother, no mention of the General and the role he played between Nobu and Sayuri, and the introduction of the great geisha Mameha was less than adequate. But more importantly, what was missing was the intense emotion that should've been felt between the Chairman and Sayuri. All i saw was a little girl crush, very little inklings of a life of tragic love, and when they finally got together, I almost cringed.
In all, I think the movie was beautiful, but lacked the emotional depth and development that is characteristic of the worldwide best seller that Golden wrote...
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Sunday, January 22, 2006
~ 12:49 PM ~
*Phew* I've finally had a chance to sit down and unwind. As mentioned in my last post, I attended some teaching in Japan things this weekend, and in case anyone else was interested, this is the general gist of it :
My Japanese journey
The day started early at 7.45 (the official time on the letter was 8am, but they suggest people get there earlier so that demonstrations and interviews can be arranged by the time of arrival ie. late people go last) at a meeting room in a Perth Hotel (seems to be the case for the letters i received).
The morning is organised in a two point five hour block where recruiters basically stick you in a room with between 12-15 people and spam you with propaganda about working for their company, life in japan, and all the bits and pieces that go in between. The first session typically starts with a general "living in Japan" in terms of cost of living, accommodation and getting there. All the typical stuff there, but I was both concerned and surprised by the range of houses that you get put in (from SHOCKING to nice) and the cost of living ($40 for a pizza anyone!??!)
The second session is then a spiel about the company, the classrooms, the teaching materials and lessons. During this session, the recruiter gave us demonstrations on how they teach a typical class there and we were all asked to be active participants. At the end of this bit, they surprised us with a "presentation test" where we were given a topic, given 15 seconds to think about the prep, and then told to present it in less than one minute. Luckily, i volunteered to go third, and was given a relatively easy topic. Apparently the earlier you go, the easier the topic (ie. my favourite restaurant). The final few people were given topics such as current affairs in Japan, the Japanese prime minister, and "my philosophy in life". As you can expect, they struggled to think of what to say in the short time span of 15 seconds, and did more poorly than the people that went first. So a tip to anyone involved in this sort of thing - volunteer to go first or somewhere near the top :D
The third session was about taxes, visa arrangements, training etc once you get to Japan. They also littered it with some fairly threatening things "if you quit before your one year contract is up, you will NEVER work for us ever again" - which begs the question, why would you return there if you quit within a few months? But yeah, several questions irked me quite a bit :S
There was then generally either lunch time / morning tea, or icebreaker type games to get you talking to each other and off your (by now) very numb ass.
After this, we had to do either a 30 minute English test, or write a 15 minute spiel on why we wanted to go to Japan. It wasn't too difficult, but there were a few people that I spoke to afterwards that really struggled ( I dont think their English was too good in the first place).
Following this, we were then asked to present a teaching demonstration based on what was shown in the second bit of the morning. So we all took turns, taught, and got feedback and participated.
After this, (depending on the school), the personal interviews took place. For one school, they took place after the group session, and for another school, they call you back for an interview in the afternoon or the next day. At this point, you are also able to evaluate whether you want to continue.
The personal interviews were your general job interview type questions. Lots of "name a time when.... " type questions, and "describe..." etc type questions. All in all, the interviews ranged from between 30-1 hour.
So that was the major thing this weekend .
I've got one more in two weeks time, and then we'll just have to wait and see...
Besides that, I caught up with my lovely friend Theng the other night and went to coffee at Banca Cafe , which is a cosy little cafe near my house and is named like that due to being in the old Commonwealth bank site. I hadn't seen Theng for ages, and so we stayed up till past midnight just chatting, and I would have loved to do more catching up (especially as she is leaving for Canberra in a month or so) but I had interviews to prep for.
This weekend also saw a lovely dinner with my favourite girls at Seoul korean bbq, a place that saw our clothes and hair full of smelly bbq odour. hahah classssssssssssssssy! =D Always nice to catch up, and the girls got me some very funky and colourful bed stuff (hehe i've been getting heaps of those) which is currently on my bed at the moment.
I would take photos to break up this text-block but my camera is out of batteries at the moment, so it will have to wait :D
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Tuesday, January 17, 2006
~ 7:51 PM ~
Today marked three rather exciting and nerve-wracking moments.
1. I picked up a brochure about Japan from the travel agency.
No sweat there. Just a little bit of advertising material, some beautiful images, and a whole lot of money involved :)
2. I was called my one of the BIG 4 (japanese english teaching associations) to interview with them.
Not so interested. Sure, it sort of hammered in that this 'adventure' of mine may actually become real. But at the same time, this was for a company which does not have rave reviews on the internet, and so, i wasn't too fussed yet.
3. I was called by another of the BIG 4 to attend their group interview.
At this stage, I was getting a little more excited , and more than a little nervous. This was the company that I did want to work for, the one with the rave reviews across the boards, and the one where life in Japan seems to fit in well with.
It got all too scary when he emailed me a whole bunch of information regarding the interview, and the teaching demonstrations that I would have to do as part of it.
Now , it really got me scared.
I haven't heard anything from the Korean agency just yet, but Korea seems a little bit *too* scary for me at the moment.
But back to being scared - I keep wondering if this jump is an impulsive reaction triggered by one bad week at work (yes , last week just dragged on and on and made me feel like my brains were turning into unstimulated mush); or whether or not, it was something that I would truly enjoy and embark on.
I emailed a couple of people, and all told me that they had the time of their lives over there - heck, it must be great for Christine to spend another year there hehe ;). But anyways, I'm looking forward to it, yet also am more than a little nervous...
But I guess we'll see first if i do okay in the interviews, get a job offer, and then we'll decide the reality of the decision eh ?
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Friday, January 13, 2006
~ 7:19 PM ~
... The other night I lay in bed thinking how great it would be to pack up, run off and see a whole 'nother country. I dont know why - I guess you could say that I'm pretty dissatisfied with my current job. Maybe it was just this week - but I felt overworked, and bored most of the time. This whole week has been doing accounting statements, and i don't even have an accounting major! *doh*.
So anyways... im braving it and i think this might be the catalyst for packing up, running off and seeing that whole 'nother country.
*sigh*
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Tuesday, January 10, 2006
~ 5:55 PM ~
Last night I had a dream - I dreamt that I was just finishing year 12, and running around the gardens of my old highschool and getting excited with my friends thinking "wow! we're going to start uni soon!"..
I woke up and I actually had a little sunken feeling in me. Only a bit over 5 years ago, I was getting excited about starting uni. And now that I've finished, I'm not sure whether I have something to look forward to.
I know they say that life is a bundle of surprises and that it's the greatest journey that one will ever live. But back then, I was so sure of things - so sure that I would spend a few years at uni, so sure that I would have a carefree uni student life, and so sure that the people around me would remain just that.
Now, I am sure that I will go to work every morning at 8am, and I'm certain that I will probably work for at least one more year. But beyond that, there are so many uncertainties. There's the uncertainties with changing faces and who will be there as things change - with boyfriends moving away, with friends moving east and overseas; there's the uncertainties of careers - i've never been one to know exactly what i wanted to do - more so, i'd say i'm a drifter; and the uncertainty of what's around the corner.
I used to be excited about all this. But now, I'm a little apprehensive, and a little scared even. I just hope that the future out there is just as great as the past has been :)
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Thursday, January 05, 2006
~ 6:38 PM ~
This week has been a hot week :S Business shirts and cool office temperatures do not mix well in such weather. But I'm looking forward to weekends of shorts, skirts, swimming, market shopping and all things summery.
One thing i need to do is rebook my Parasailing day. I had originally booked it in december but had to cancel because of the weather that day (thunderstorms and wind). I think i'll do it again sometime soon.. have to figure out when though :)
Other things to fix :
- fix that purple toilet in my house. One day when I was out of the house, my dad went colour happy and painted it a strange pattern. It was only when I got back that i noticed the strangely coloured toilet. So this weekend , Ill have to go repaint it when he's not looking (don't want to insult his colour co-ordination).
- must fix up golfing skills. Several weeks of non-playing have resulted in bad hitting (not that it was good before haha) and lack of confidence :p Must buy golf set and play secretly so northie boys can be blown away by amazing talent ;)
- need hair cut. My hair looks crap at the moment as it has remnants of paint specs throughout it. haha Need to use my 20% voucher that St James sent me for my birthday.
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Sunday, January 01, 2006
~ 3:42 PM ~
Happy new year everyone ! Hope it brings you all the bestest in all aspects of your life :) Im too lazy to blog, so im just going to add some piccies:
New Year's Eve @ Simon's Place
[ Karen, Naomi, Me and Serene ...]
The above picture shows a truly insane, weird, contraption - The crazy sadistic "Reaction" Game. There are four "buzzer" type things, and the central control unit. The control unit plays music and when it stops, everyone has to push the button on their buzzer. The last person to press the button gets sent a shock.. haha it's crazy and sadistic, and everyone who got shocked never played again... except for Janet.. hehe who seemed to love just shocking herself for no apparent reason :D
The Gingerbread Train I made:
Oh and before we forget.... New Year's Resolutions: (what could New Year's be without these?!)
Career:
- Move from the insurance industry into the resources industry
- Get a job that actually uses my many talents (hehe), and keeps me sufficiently busy but doesn't stress me out too much
- Get a payrise - a BIG payrise!
Life:
- Stop dwelling on things that "could've been" or "should've been" and move forward in all aspects
- Enjoy it
- Lose that stupid 5kg that is still haunting me from last year's holiday!
Love:
- Compromise
- Don't get frustrated and angry because Quan is a whole 6 hours drive away from Perth
- Head to Kalgoorlie as often as possible
Finance:
- Continue saving for house
- Stop spending excessive amounts on clothing and shoes (you do not need that much!)
- Write up a budget for 2006, and stick to it (stop getting tempted to have "just a little bit more)
Relationships:
- Catch up with fabulous girlies more often
- Catch up with friends forgotten
- See or talk to at least one friend each week!
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