Now, true to my name.

Eskew me lehd-dee, jeu wan to bai samsing? I can gib jeu deeskaw, cheep cheep. Jeu offer good prai, if I can gib, I gib jeu.

Jie jie, jie jie, ni ken wo mai, yi kuai, wan doll-lah. Jie jie, jie jie...

In Siem Reap, those who can speak English will call you LEHD-DEE, and if they speak Mandarin, they call you JIE JIE, and if they speak Khmer, I also wouldn't understand lah, so I wouldn't know.

The only Khmer I learnt in my 3 days (besides names of temples) was "or-khun", which means "thank you". Or else, you could say "sankseu" which is their English version.

So, trip to Siem Reap was pretty interesting. I sat tuk-tuks, motorcycles which went BUMP BUMPETY BOOMPETI on country roads which were like muddy and gross and filled with cow poop, cars, boats, sampans, and of course planes lah - I need to get there first. The only one thing I didn't ride when I was there was the elephants. But then I've done that before, in like Vietnam or Myanmar, so like no need again loh, not like it's cheap anyway.

I tasted Khmer food, for every meal besides breakfast. Tastes not too bad, most of them. Tried to speak Khmer, to no avail. At least I learnt that Khmer is pronouned "khh-mai" not "khh-meer".

Travelled to gabijillions of temples, after like the 4th, they sort of look the same liao. I mean, unless you want to go and start being meticulous and all that, then yes, you would actually realise not one of them is the same. Cause they're of different built, honouring different kings, with different inscriptions and different carvings. Went to the Tonle Sap Lake, a silk farm, and markets - the old market, the night market, the noon-night market. So the many markets.

OH OH OH, I totally had SO MUCH fun picking out ALLLLLL the Engrish! Woah, I took so many pictures, I could start my own Engrish failblog.

And, I took an amazing amount of NINE HUNDRED photos, all in a span of 3 days. Sankseu Shuey's camera, for being amazing. I took so many sceneries, and so many nice photos, I feel like a pro loh.

This is my favouritest picture of all, taken on the flight to Siem Reap, which departed at 7am, just early enough to catch the sunrise:


And then there's so many pretty cloud images and naked kiddies pictures, which capture the life of the children who live in the floating village:



And then this is proof that branded goods go a long way to leaving their mark behind:


And then the signboards there also so farnee wan - ranges from must wear shirt, to no...talking/shouting/spraying people with saliva:


It was all good fun. =) We had so much fun we nearly missed our flight home! Cause papa kept saying our flight was at 7pm, so we had all these plans to spend another day doing such-and-such. Then, mama said, eh just go and check - whilst making a booking for our airport transfer. Turns out flight was at 8am! Big difference lo! Haha, so anyway, we got on our plane - duh, that's how I got home.

I am now, true to my name - TAN.

Eh? Oh? WAHHH!!!

I just found another chiri heat scale thingie. This one way more precise.

And I realised something, yesterday, what I had was probably not the Red Savina habanero, it's probably just a normal habanero, which according to this list has only an SHU scale of 100000 to 350000.

So, the scary Jolokia is TEN TIMES it's spiciness. All my previous descriptions of any human consuming it still applies.

WHOA.

Chalenn.

Yesterday hior, I go and eating the one of the world's hottest chiri lo.

And then hior, I burning in the tummy lo. Until even now, when I typing lo. Quite the scary nia.

And then hior, I go la google, what the world's spiciest chiri is. Wah I find out hior, is the Bhut Jolokia. Wah, listen name also I kia lo.

Then hior, this article hior, telling me lah, how these peeper measure how hot the chiri is. They use this scale called Scoville Scale, then they measure in Scoville Heat Unit (SHU).

Then ha, they have this timetaber showing the chiris and their SHUs lo.

Then hior a normal sweet capsicum is scale jeeloh. Then hior a jalapeno is scale 2500 to 8000. Then hior the crazy habanero I ate yesterday hior is scale 350000 to 575000, which already WAH so many jeelohs at the back.

Then hior you know this kia kia Bhut Jolokia hior...ONE MEERION! Like one of the tested ones showing SHU 1,001,304! WAH PIANG EH.

If I yesterday burn tummy till today is only half that meerion, this one I eat only ha, I straight away send to hospiter lo. Then they need to use fire extinguisher and peeeeeesh my tummy lo.







But. I really want to try.

A 26-hour day.

I started the day filling up the outbound form for the first time marking the E column instead of the D. I am now an "Australian resident departing temporarily" no longer a "Visitor or temporary entrant departing". I then boarded my flight to head home.

I got on the plane and found myself in a seat by the window, in the same row as two pretty nice Indonesian ladies. We chatted a bit before the flight took off. I then got tired, and decided to sleep. Indonesian ladies decided to stay awake and chat. Me, too tired, slept for a short while anyway. Got awoken up by fidgety chatty lady next to me. Tried to find another comfortable position to sleep in, failed. Shifted around for the next half hour. Stuffed songs into ears and blasted. To no avail. Sure blocked out the chat, didnt block out fidgetiness.

I got up, took a walk to see if there are any vacant seats. The back area was like heaven for some. People occupied whole rows and laid on it sleeping peacefully. I was like, WHAT, I've been cramped up in that tiny space all these while. But there were no longer any whole rows for me. No, not that lucky. But then, I spotted an empty-ish row. There was this one guy, who had the whole row to himself, but was sitting upright, with his legs slightly slanted off to the side.

I went up to him and asked if I could shift there. He had no objections, so I quickly moved my things over. I then had the best sleep on AirAsia ever. I could stretch my legs just that tiny bit more, made all the difference in the world. I then got woken up by the noisy air crew going around selling duty free stuff and merchandise. I looked to my left and found the nice guy shivering cause all he had on was this thin jacket.

I decided to offer him my blanket, since I was nice and warm and had enough sleep (1 hour) plus I still have my birthday jacket with me anyway. He took it gratefully and then had a sound sleep too. Glad that worked out well for both of us. =)

Landed then took a bus to KL Sentral, got the usual "flirtations" (if you may call it) from the local bus people. Malaysia, oh Malaysia. Took a train then to Kerinchi, where I called mommy to pick me up.

Got to mommy's office, had my first meal of the day - NASI LEMAK! Scarfed it down like a hungry wolf. Sat around, read my book a bit, then headed out to Mid Valley to meet Mr Bakh.

OH OH. I forgot to mention how paranoid people here are about the swine flu. Like SO MANY people are walking around hiding their noses and mouths like they have acne all over their face. So paranoid. Totally reminded me of one of my friend's really good facebook status - A million people have AIDS and no one wants to wear a condom, a few hundred people have swine flu and everyone wants to wear a mask.

Anyway, more paranoid beings in MV, had lunch, had dessert, talked, walked, went back to work/mommy's workplace. Hung around, time to head home.

Detour on the way home to....PASAR MALAM!! Woooo~~! Had my fill of ban chien kueh, apom balik, air mata kucing (PJ's best) and char kueh kak. Woah, I think I totally gained all my gym and badminton weight back in one day.

It's been a long day, and I tell you, I feel SO POOR here. Firstly, I'm living of Doodah's prepaid prescription glasses cash (lucky he gave me any), and I totally spent a whopping 3 figures in a day. Dahlah no money, spend so fast some more. Booo...

Anyway, toodles.

GARHHHH!!!

*curses but crosses fingers and hopes for the best*

A very eventful day, or was it?

First of August. Gosh. August already. I'm still unemployed. Bah. That's EIGHT months of sitting on my arse. Pfft.

Anyway. First of August marked the day I went off to Sydney for a whole half hour, then came back. It's the day I went to send Yongs off, till the next time I see him again. It's also the day of my last IB. Also my worst. As in worst IB, not worst day.

So I started the day, waking up at 7am, to shower and prepare for my 3-hour bus trip. I also conveniently managed to damage my glasses the day before so I had to put on my contacts. Got to the bus, took a nice long ride into the neighbouring state.

When I was nearly reaching my destination, Hongs called and said "Xin where are you ah?" I'm like...erm, reaching soon. She went, "You do know our bus leaves at 11.15 right?".

Xin: You serious? But my bus is scheduled to ARRIVE at 11.15. Crap!
Hongs: Erm, never mind lah, you just get off one bus to jump on the other loh.

Crossing my fingers, I hoped we reached there early, and we did, lucky thing. The other bus also arrived late. Luckier thing. So I had a half hour in the airport, saw Aits, talked a bit, farewelled Yongs, hugs all around, photos a bit bit, then took another 3-hour long bus trip home.

Then got home, went to the city for a bit, rested a bit, then Hongs came over to primp and doll us up. Us being Shuey, Su Yin and I.

Primp and proper, we walked in heels to the International Ball. The night was a disaster for me. I didn't really have fun, the food was bad, performances....mehh. By the mid of the event, I was already half dead and gone. My eyes were so weary I could close them in a snap.

What I disliked MOST about the event, was how there was ZILCH schedule around. No one had any idea what was happening or when. MCs were entertaining themselves with suggestive jokes on stage, people on the floor were too busy doing their own things to care, it's like people on stage were in a different world to those on the floor.

And was I disappointed I didn't go up on stage? Yes. I do like to be in the limelight and I like the attention, I'm definitely not shy to admit that. I bothered to dress up to stand out in the crowd, but my effort was dusted off like a piece of lint.

And not just me, I must add. Yeam did a fantastic job dressing up too. And all his wonderful videos (I see an alternative career path should he decide to give up on Econs) went unappreciated.

Owh wells. And I also found out that it is my last ever ball, or formal dinner. For the year, possibly. Unless some other ball comes up. I won't be attending Malam Gemilang, cause I won't be around. I'll be home, rotting, while people (hopefully) have fun without me around. =( Am tiny bit regretting the decision to go home. Cause so many awesome things are happening whilst I'm gone. I'll miss out on so much. Boo.

I guess, an eye for an eye. I get to go home, and enjoy the company of family. I should focus on that yay part. And try to forget the fun I'm missing out on, the money I could be earning, the people I'll miss. Cheeyyy say until like I won't be coming back. =P

So, Canberra, don't miss me too much. I'll be back within a month! *blows kisses*

So which is it???

Ignoring the English in the second line, so is it a nice day here in Canberra or not?

Jeng jeng...

Drama mama : Kiasu mama.

The ultimate kiasuness.

I sure win.

So, I went to Dick Smith to develop photos to add to my wall. Someone *coughBarneycough* was complaining that his picture wasn't on my wall so we chose some to print out to add to the collection.

So the price of the digital prints were 12 cents each.

I wanted to print 7.

But, 7 means I have to pay 84 cents, when I technically could pay only 10 cents for each, meaning 7 should cost only 70 cents.

So I did just that. I printed one photo by one photo. Having 7 receipts in my hand, I walked to the cash registers, and before I plonked my receipts on the counter, asked the lady "Could I be a pest and pay for each of these separately?".

She said, "Yeah sure" before realising there were 7 receipts and each of them were for ONE photo.

I was like, "Erm, I'm trying to save money, so yeah...*nervous laughter*".

She looked at me one kind and asked, how is this saving money again?

I'm like, well technically, if I pay one by one, I pay 10 cents each, so I save 2 cents per print.

Then she had this look on her face, but proceeded to do just that.

So she had the cash register out 7 times, putting in 10 cents each time.

At the end of the 10-minute transaction that would've taken 5 seconds, I managed to save 14 cents!!!

At the end of it, I told her "I must be your weirdest customer today huh."

She's like...heh heh, yeah, but it's all right....*smiles*



I rock, I know.

Drama mama : Dresses up and marches out.

Yesterday I had my first permanent job interview - with the ACT Treasury.

It started off with a Case Study, where I was given some articles and a few questions, a notepad, a calculator, a pen, a pencil and a laptop. I was also given 45 minutes.

I walked into the room, realise the topic of my Case Study was on "Tax Review" and went CRAP. I know least bout tax amongst all, and the little that I know bout it, I don't even really know it well.

So I got to working to "analysing" the articles I was given - a pie chart and two pieces of news cutouts.

Read, read, read, wah lao I tak tau what is going on la wey. So I just pakai crap my way through nia. Wrote out a few points on the notepad, arranged my thoughts. I then spent half an hour to structure my sentence, typed it out, made it sound a lot more informative than it actually is, and space it out with pretty paragraphing.

Okay 45 minutes up. Now to the scary part. Face to face interview with a panel of 3, and a scribe.

Two men, one very pretty woman. All high pangkat managers.

They asked me questions, technical ones, that I couldn't answer. DEATH. Like I wrote in my "impressive" case study some mention about "inefficient taxes could be removed". Then they asked me, what sort of inefficient taxes are you referring to. Uh oh. Caught in a trap that I set up on my own. So then I elaborated about tiny small departments and tax bases that are less productive or unimportant or something, I just stuttered the rest of my answers.

Then they asked "Do you know the difference between the taxes that is governed by the Federal Government and the state taxes?". I'm like, honestly, no I don't have a clue. Then one of the guys was very nice and said "Don't worry, not a lot of people actually know the difference of which is governed by who.". Then I calmed down a bit, then the other guy asks, could you, however, give us some examples of what you might think are state taxes? CRAP. I went, sorry, but I really have no clue. GOSH HOW TEMPURUNG MUST I HAVE SOUNDED. But they were very nice and gave me some examples of both. Then I went, oh yes, I did read some of that in the articles in the case study that I did. DOINK ME.

Then they moved on to more general questions like teamwork and conflict resolution, those WAY more manageable.

Then they asked what strengths do you have that you can contribute to us. I said, erm, I'm meticulous, I like organising stuff (yes, I friggin said stuff), I'm...a happy person [laughs nervously]. Good thing they laughed with me and one of them said, that's good, we like happy people. *smiles*

Then the lady asked what my career aspirations are, so I said, ultimately I want to own my own business. Like a food and beverage business. Then she said "Oh wow, that's NOWHERE near what you'd do here in the Treasury. So you're into the hospitality thing?". I was like...erm yeah, very different, but I'm a big fan of hospitality and customer service.

At this point, they all nodded their heads and smiled. "We like customer service. Customer service is good." PHEW.

So. I like screwed up answering them technical knowledgeable questions, but they were all VERY nice and VERY smiley, and that definitely helped with the jitters. So, they seemed to nod a lot and smile a lot and quite liked me, I guess. But I sounded like so dumb, so they might not like that.

So, *crosses fingers* see how lah! There are 8 to 9 spots to be filled and I will know by end of August-ish. Will DEFINITELY announce if I get the job then.

Drama mama : Sheer laziness overcomes her.

Episode two in the drama mama series.

She went to sleep at about 3 plus after chatting with her friend. She woke up 4 and a half hours later wondering why she was awake. She rolled around in bed then her phone rang.

Bakery calling? Hmmm... Brandall speaks through the earpiece : You're supposed to work today, from 8am. She went...HUH? But I can't. I've got a lot of things to do. Cause I'm going to Sydney tomorrow. Then Brandall says, oh, but you're working tomorrow also, from 8am to 2pm. She said, but I'll be in Sydney.

Brandall gives in and went oh well, guess I'll have to find other people to replace you then. She rejoices and wades in her laziness.

Then another call comes in. The screen flashes "Target". She already knew the question and her answer in return.

Manager : Hey, it's Jess calling from Target. Could you come in today from 1 to 6?
Drama mama : Oh, erm, sorry, not today. Sorry...
Manager : That's okay. Buh bye.

She puts down her phone and guilt overcomes her. Does laziness warrant a loss of the chance to earn a hundred dollars by picking up clothes from the floor and helping out customers when they need help? She didn't think so, but what's done is done. Thoughts crossed her mind about whether she should ring back and said she cancelled her plans.

No, she didn't in the end. In case you were wondering.

She turned down 3 working shifts, in half an hour. That half hour of laziness cost her a total of....$280. Oh dear. Now she regrets it.

Oh dear.

What has she done?

Oh dear.

Oh dear.

Ohh.

Dearr.