Birthday girl

On Monday I celebrated my 25th birthday. No big party or anything, but I've been very fortunate to be surrounded by lovely family, friends, work mates and of course... presents, flowers, cards, etc. To top it all off, the weather has been fantastic! Nice and sunny... what more could a girl ask for?

So much is happening at work in the past few weeks, in and out the office, swamped with emails to follow up.... I've been chasing my tail since.

Wensdy night, we did a 'girls night in' at my place to celebrate my birthday and also a bit of a housewarming thing. I've been living here for 2 months now and have yet to organise the official housewarming party! (I'm so slack at times)

The 'girls night in' which was meant to be NOT THAT BIG A DEAL, turned out to be quite a full-on event. We went to Victoria market the day before during our lunch hour to buy the groceries. Prepared some stuff at night. We had to organise who was driving to work, who was taking the train, how everyone was going back home, etc. But at the end, it was such a fantastic night.

One of the dishes one of the girls whipped up. Deeleesshhh!

If there's anything they love, it would be pulling a prank on me on my birthday. My present was a box full of crap from the Reject Shop. Typical....

Awful looking placemats. Just what I wanted!

Dishwashing liquid, box of 99cents tissues and cupasoup. Only because I've got a mortgage now and can't afford these luxuries.

Finally, I got the real thing, and it was a Country Road vase, which I picked out myself at the start of the week while they pretended they weren't going to buy that for me. The dog looks like he's going to wee on the ugly placemats soon enough. hehehe..

Finally, a birthday cake from David Jones to end the night.

Lucky stars

I must admit, I love fancy jewellery, especially expensive ones, but I don't have any (maybe one or two, plus they are not THAT expensive anyways) and I don't wear them every day because I can't be bothered taking them off, putting them back on, taking good care of it… and most importantly – losing it!

Today my outfit to work seemed boring. Maybe it was because I was assigned to a boring task and couldn't care less. So I thought I'd wear a ring which Grumpy got for me last year, just to lift the spirits a little.

This guy at work said "Ooh, nice ring, never seen you wear it before!" I do wear it.. only on the odd occasion. Do you know why?

A while back, I wore that ring nearly every day. If I washed my hands without taking the ring off, even after drying my hands, I could still feel it wasn't completely dry, due to the way the ring was designed, water gets caught in between. Annoying. Since then, each time I went to the ladies, I'd take the ring off, place it on the counter, wash my hands, dry it, and put the ring back on.

One day, one of the managers came up to me, "Jules, don't you wear a '_____'* ring?"

For some weird reason, I thought it was a trick question. I don't like to flaunt that ring, but if she's thinking I do, then its no good. I went… hmm.. yea…. Err.. why?

"One of the girls from the other department found a '_____'* ring in the toilet. They think it's real" (oh you reckon?)

I looked at my finger, it wasn't there!

She added "they tried locating the owner all day, but no one has claimed it. Then they're asking me now and when they said '_____'* ring, I said.. I know a girl who wears such a ring!"

"Omg… omg. Its mine! Omg!!! I can't believe I don't even realise its missing!"

So she brought me to the other department, and the manager from there said "finally we found the owner! Is it real?" (Why is it that I get question all the time?)

While I did reward the person who found it, I was feeling relieved. Yet I found myself overwhelmed by the fact that I was so careless and that there are still good people out there, honest people!

Then I thought to myself, if I had LOST the ring, I had 3 options:

1. Pretend I never had such a ring. Grumpy would think I'm a schizo, but he probably does anyways. It would just reinstate his thoughts. Haha this is quite a bad option, but not too bad.
   
2. Buy exactly the same ring again, with my own money though, and not tell him I lost anything. I might have to starve for a whole month, maybe two. This is also not too bad an option. However, I don't really want to use my own money.
   
3. Tell Grumpy the truth. Worst of them all – no more expensive jewellery for me…. He will stop buying. Period.
   

From that experience, I have learnt to be very careful when I remove my jewellery and place it at anywhere else but my jewellery box. I thank my lucky stars that I got back my ring.

(* left blank intentionally…)

winter

Nothing exciting has been happening lately. Its winter so I don't expect too much. Two weeks ago, I had to work on a Saturday due to a project milestone. We worked from 8am until 8pm. We were given cab charges to come in and to go home. We were brought to a nice restaurant for lunch, provided heaps of Tim Tams and 'snakes'... Yet it took me 3 days to recover after that weekend of work. Hehe Mum reckons we're spoilt compared to my peers working back in KL.

On Wensdy, Grumpy and I celebrated our nine years of being together.

I look so drunk just after 1 glass of wine.

Last weekend, I embarked on a journey to rediscover my artistic roots! I'm painting my bathroom walls. I intend to do some wall art.

No, not a feature wall. Each person I tell at work about painting my bathroom walls, they say "You mean a FEATURE WALL??" NO! Feature walls are easy… hehe its just a matter of having one wall which is a different colour. But wall art.. you would require 'some' creative talent.

No pictures will be posted yet, just in case it doesn't go as planned and this artistic journey goes to a complete halt. Grumpy took a $200 bet with me when we first bought the house, if I will finish this bathroom wall project by 2007. Bring it on! He came home from work that Saturday and said "WHAT? You've only done one wall? What about the other three?" Jeeezzz.. relax… painting the walls by myself seemed a little bit harder than I expected. But I still enjoy it… I take my time when I paint… while listening to Amy Winehouse.

I also brought the dog to visit our local dog park for the first time. I'm still exploring my new neighbourhood. I love border collies, they are intelligent, playful yet so gentle and obedient.




And finally, our sofa arrived this morning. Took about 6 weeks to arrive. Yet Grumpy reckons I paint too slow. It looks rather bare. I'll probably get some cushions to go with it soon.

Gwenie gwen gwen

I've always been a fan of Gwen Stefani since I was 14. I'm a huge No Doubt fan and I've been to a No Doubt concert held at KL in my previous life. Months ago, when news arrived that Gwen Stefani was going to have a concert here in Melbourne, I was so excited. I rang Grumpy straight away and asked if we should attend her concert. He gave me a rude 'NO'. Then I asked the girls, no one really liked her THAT much and there was no point me dragging them to her concert because it would just kill my Gwen moment. Friends at work started to sympathise and soon enough, I was getting pity invites from the weirdest of people.

As her concert was approaching, everyone came by to talk to me about Gwen. "Jules, still no one to go with?" oh yeah.. not funny.

Her concert was on Friday. 2 days before (Wednesday), I emailed Grumpy and said "Do you want to go to the Gwen concert this Friday?" I wasn't expecting a reply as he doesn't normally respond to my emails (ignorance is bliss – to him). He actually said Yes, and so I dashed to the nearest Ticketek, and got myself 2 tickets. Then I started getting emails saying "I've been told you're going to drag your boyf to some girlie event" hahaha as part of every rship… 'give & take'!

This is what happens when you buy last minute tickets. You get crap seats. We were really close to the stage though. Regardless, it was money well spent! She opened the show by stepping out from a cage singing to The Sweet Escape.

She's so hot. Notice the Harajuku girls..

It was a sold out concert. Filled of 12,000 predominantly female fans. Going to the toilet was a nightmare as the girls queue was endless. Grumpy came out the boys loo saying "You can actually go into the men's toilet. There's only like 5 guys here at the concert"

Securitise your life

Modern day – everything is now said to be more secure, you have to enter passwords for this, this, and this. Its quite contradicting. While we create the need for more passwords, yet why does it feel our privacy is being restricted in every possible way? At work, we're being watched for everything, our emails are filtered, where we surf, what we read, what we google, the blogs we read, the number of times we log on to our banking - everything is being monitored. (think George Orwell's 1984!)

I have to admit, I'm just hopeless when it comes to passwords. For work, the (many) systems prompts us to change our password each month. Oh gawd, and we're constantly warned not to write down our passwords. Every so often, I find myself ringing someone, helpdesk or the system provider going.. "Sorry to be a pest, but I've locked myself out.. again!" I shouldn't be sorry, I know. Its not my fault I have to memorise the million passwords I have to enter just to start my day at work.

Even for my personal life, I've got another million passwords to remember, and Grumpy's too (he doesn't know how Internet banking works).

I was at a bank recently with a close friend during lunch.

Jules: Hi! I'm here to notify a change of address

Bank Officer: Certainly. Do you have your ATM card?

Jules: Nope. I lost it.

Bank Officer: Its OK. That's fine. We'll need some ID.

Jules: Oh, can you send me a new ATM card? And reset all my passwords?

Bank Officer: Reset all yr passwords?

Jules: Yes, reset my ATM pin, I can't remember what it is. Reset my Internet banking password too, I can't remember that too. And.. I can't remember the answers to the 2 security questions.

Jules' friend: Jules, ARE YOU REALLY JULES?!

Hehehe… A new thing now, is that NOT only have you got to memorise a password, but there's a few security questions as well. So in case you forget your password, you try answering your 2 security questions (which you're meant to set up yourself). If you can answer them, they'll send you the password electronically.

I locked myself out of the payroll system at work recently. Emailed HR. The HR person calls me back going "How about answering your security question?" she says "Your question is 'when is my anniversary?' Don't you know when your anniversary is, jules?!" I DO! I SWEAR I DO! But I don't know the format.. did I put the answer is dd-mm-yyyy? Or d-m-yy? I can't remember. So I got locked out of the security question stage too. My friend who accompanied me to the bank that day was cracking up as she overheard me on the phone with HR.

And last night, I tried to log on to my Internet banking (the one which recently reset everything for me). TOTALLY FORGOT my password. So I went to the security question stage. 1^st question "when is my dog's birthday?" First thing through my head… "OMG, which dog? I've got 2 dogs!" Guess what? I've been locked out again. Too many incorrect attempts, apparently. CRAP! I have to go back to the bank on Monday. ARRGGGHHH!!!

Feeling a bit under the weather

I have been feeling a bit crook for the past week or so. I was down with a cold and flu last week. But that didn't stop me from going to work, and going out with the girls. Just a sniffle or two.

On Tuesday, all of us girls went out for dinner and a movie because it was Tight Arse Tuesdays. We watched Premonition. I shouldn't have worn my contacts because it was such a long day. We went for the movie straight after work. But I was OK. Movie was rather boring but Julian McMahon was gorgeous! Hehehe

On Wednesday, I shoudn't have worn my contacts to work. I wasn't going to, but because my glasses didn't match the outfit I was wearing… I wore it anyways. During the arvo, some friends pointed out my red eye. Uh-oh!

Thursday, woke up with 1 red eye and 1 pink eye. Didn't make it to work.

Today, I was actually looking forward for work as it was the first official day we start Casual Fridays. My colleagues were texting me "Yes JULES, you can wear your Tsubi's to work tomorrow!" We've been fighting to have Casual Fridays for ages.. finally it's gotten the green light. We can wear jeans, but no runners. Whatever that means.. but I woke up with both my eyes still a little pink, and a massive migraine. I threw up, and Grumpy took the day off to bring me to the doctors. I started getting SMS-es saying "Its ok Jules, you can wear your Tsubi's next Friday!" Dopey's organised dinner and a movie tonight with some friends. We're gonna be watching the Simpsons movie – and I'll be wearing my nerdy glasses. Damn! Thank gawd there's no events this weekend. No way I'll be caught dead clubbing, in my glasses. hahaha

presents

I haven't had a chance to blog for a couple of weeks. Reason being our broadband connection wasn't working. Then the house phone connection died on us. And… we still don't have TV. Yeap, I have not watched TV for more than a month now. I asked Grumpy, no TV, no home phone, no Internet.. will I lose my water and electricity soon? Hehehe he took it quite offensively from me. Anyways, Internet and phone has been restored. But TV – when the cows come home! We were notified that we couldn't receive Foxtel in our home. Bummer.

A few friends dropped by to see the place. We haven't had the official house warming party as yet… only because we've ordered some furniture and we'll only get it mid August. But here's some house warming gifts I've received from friends.

From Dopey's friends… "you are too kind!"

My first fern. Its quite low maintenance. After my friend left the house, she texted me and said "don't kill it, Jules!" Yes, got that.

And this flower plant. I don't know.. suddenly the flowers haven't been looking too happy. I've been caring for it. This is from an ex-colleague. She even brought a bottle of champagne… champagne, champagne for EVERYONE!!! And biscuits for the dog.

On a different note, I went out last Friday night to this place called Baroq House to celebrate a friends birthday. Had an awesome time. I always enjoy my girls night out.

Nice place. The loo's are pretty cool.

There's even this coin operated hair straightener here in the toilet. 2 dollars for 2 minutes or something like that. How convenient!