1st June 2011, Wednesday
Just remembered my odd dream – the diagnosis was left leg thinking/acting like it’s the right leg. Don’t ask me how that’s possible.
To “treat” that condition, I had powdered Olanzapine (schizophrenic medication) in a little box strapped around my left ankle – every time my leg acts up, I had to shake my leg to dispense the powder.
I think I’m working too hard.

2nd June 2011, Thursday
Watched Pride & Prejudice again – balls & social dancing seems fun! Love the courtship (minus the women’s total dependency on marriage for survival). Really love that era (in movies – I think I’d die living in that era but Julie says we would have servants *haha*) Gushing over Pride & Prejudice with Julie!

5th June 2011, Sunday

Mmm! Mother-made 麵粉糕 at the Choy’s place.

6th June 2011, Monday
Really frustrated. Why did I start telling the story about being a sales rep to Jantina right after talking about hair conditioner??? I can’t remember! This is terrible – I possibly have to increase my fish oil intake. I’ve actually done this while explaining/talking to a customer (thankfully at that time, I remembered my story in the end).
Imagine if I didn’t remember then…

7th June 2011, Tuesday

Wah! While walking home, saw this lurking on front door (door that we don’t use).

Surprise “care package” from NN.

8th June 2011, Wednesday

Pearls arrived today. Not too bad, right?
Got this off the internet for LiMay’s birthday. It’s our 30th this year and it would be her wedding gift as well (30th anniversary=pearl, if she chooses to wear it for her wedding, it goes very well with her dress!)

10th June 2011, Friday
Strong candidate. Lip service or really? Hmmm…
I’ve not done this in a while and it’s a little awkward trying to sell yourself in the best light possible.

11th June 2011, Saturday

So spoilt! Couldn’t make it for Ryan’s full moon party but Joanne and Kevin sent these back with David who went at lunchtime.

My first time getting 1st place playing Scramble online with other players!

14th June 2011, Tuesday

I found materials from more than 2 years ago – abandoned projects!

Pretty fabrics that were meant to be used to make reusable shopping bags.

Look! Proof. TWO years ago…

17th June 2011, Friday

Final presentation for Carmen’s birthday. That was the card I left out for her this morning.

18th June 2011, Saturday
It’s been a while since I’ve been to the movies – today I watched “Bridesmaids” with Jantina and Deidre. The part I loved most? The door gifts at the bridal shower!

It took me a few months to find my “i” stamp, I wonder how long it would be before I find my used Farmer’s gift card (I want it as a keepsake). Hmmm…

19th June 2011, Sunday
Went to an open home – I am quite keen on it. Nice, small and tidy. Literally around the block from work.
Possibly needing work: insulation, bathroom, paint.

22nd June 2011, Wednesday

My first “win” – it was a tweet asking anyone who is interested to PM with name, address and t-shirt size. Thanks to grabaseat!

27th June 2011, Monday
Last night with lower braces. It’s coming off tomorrow and after that, dental hygienist appointment to get a good clean!

28th June 2011, Tuesday
Hmmm I thought we get $0.80 off if we bring your own Starbucks tumbler. Now it’s only $0.40 & if I didn’t ask, she would’ve charged full price!

Anyway, the (lower) braces are off! Will be going back later to get the splint.

My incisors (bottoms one, especially) are sensitive to scaling so Jacqui gave me this to try. It’s (as its name states) suppose to provide rapid relief to any sensitivity – here’s hoping it works!
I had to run off at the end of my appointment (even though it’s not quite all cleaned) because I made an appointment to view the flat again – this time with Samantha, Michelle and Jantina. I wanted to get an honest opinion because I think I’ve got “flat goggles”.

It was on this day that I learned loyalty meant nothing in my current job. So many times/examples that the ones who are still here are not being appreciated.
*sigh*

Also on this day, Vodafone increased my monthly text allowance to 2500 (any NZ mobile). Too bad I’m not a teenager, I can’t even use up my allowance of 300 last time. Then again, maybe it’s just sad that I haven’t got any friends to text. Boo!

Tooth Mousse – made easier with my Essix retainers!

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Delayed video – because I didn’t know how to edit clips. N00b.

I recorded the first part (obviously) when I still had my braces on, on the day when I was told by my orthodontist that they are coming off…soon. The second half was done just earlier. I HAD to because the first video didn’t have a proper ending (yes, the ending now is “da bomb” )

So here it is – FeR talking about her “failed” orthodontic treatment.

I actually added annotations using YouTube but it’s not showing – except when I’m in “Edit Annotations” mode. Odd. This video is so plain without the annotations.
*sigh*
Okay. Apparently the annotations won’t show if you insert any of them right at the very start of a video or if the timing of the last annotations goes RIGHT to the end of your video. It messes it up. I shifted the first annotation to start showing 1sec later and voila! It works. Yay!

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1st January 2011, Saturday
Just got awesome news from LiMay today! When I first saw her message, it came up as a preview on my home screen with her written message only, which was something in the lines of, “Guess what? Happy new year!”

I only saw the photo when I went into my inbox (the message only came through at 5 something am when she actually sent it out late last night – telco congestion, perhaps).

It’s just another day but can’t seem to shake off the newness and excitement of it being 1-1-11. My first patient of the day was our daily dispensing pick-up and it was relatively quiet…until 10 minutes before we were due to close, it turned into a madhouse next door. First day of the year and we’re out an hour later after closing time.

2nd January 2011, Sunday
Experiencing withdrawal symptoms – left phone at home and didn’t find out until I got into work. Feeling jittery.

Sunset as I approach Taupo.

Sunset from our accommodation – TheReef

3rd January 2011, Monday
Orakei Korako thermal park. Hot!!!

More about my meet up with the newly engaged here

4th January 2011, Tuesday
More stories on our day 2 here.

5th January 2011, Wednesday
Definitely got sun burnt on scalp – patches of red on left side and non on right side.

The burnt parting…

Other areas

6th January 2011, Thursday
Excellent day to be out and we went out. Carmen and I went to Ocean beach.

Got the insulated tumbler from Starbucks before going into work in Napier.

Sunset on the way home from Napier after work. It’s been a good day.
Praise God!

7th January 2011, Friday
Gypsy looking like roadkill on the porch – it’s a hot day for us here.

9th January 2011, Sunday
Take home message from church today:
“Humility is strength under control; not a sign or indication of weakness.”

11th January 2011, Tuesday
It is really frustrating having to go through all this work (and cost!) of trying to remain here legally. Yesterday I rang immigration at 1030am and requested the call back. Even after more than 9 hours (I’m sure I keyed in right number), I did not get a call back.
Actually, I have my documents at the ready, it’s just that it’s rather tedious especially when they can’t tell me how long it would take to process my resident visa application. I have a feeling it would be really ironic – when I do submit my work visa application, I would get my resident visa. That would just be a waste of time and money. At the same time, I wouldn’t want to be caught out not having legal rights to work/live in NZ if I don’t reapply for a work visa and my resident visa doesn’t get approved in time.

12th January 2011, Wednesday
Feels like as if for every Wednesday, without fail, we do not get to go home in time at 8pm.

After complaining about the hold back at work, finally left the building at this and everything was forgotten. God is really good, even when I’m bratty and complain about circumstances. I also received my receipt for my professional fees today – with that claim, I can pay for visa fee!

13th January 2011, Thursday
Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful. Thankful! Thank God for the amazing speed but it’s just typical, huh? The day after I sent out my work visa renewal documents, I got an email saying I’ve been assigned a case officer for my resident application. And I assume that they have also received my work visa application because $230 has been deducted from my bank account.

14th January 2011, Friday
My scalp has started to flake today (from the sunburn) and we’re talking about mega sized dandruff-resembling flakes!!! Ewww.

16th January 2011, Sunday
I suddenly had hang ups about friends. Other people go through BGR hang ups, I go through friendship hang ups…but you know what? I should invest my time and energy on the many others who cares enough to keep in touch, rather than have thinking about those who don’t give two hoots.

17th January 2011, Monday
Used all 7 (well, 6 and a blank one) tiles in my Word game with random opponent. “Liberty” for 71 points.

A little overwhelmed while choosing birthday cards – 30th! We are approaching another decade my fellow comrades from class of ’98!

18th January 2011, Tuesday
First time cooking century egg and I threw it into a slow cooker pot with rice, salted egg and minced pork yesterday night. Lesson learnt: do NOT put century egg or salted egg into slow cooker overnight. They’ve completely dissolved. What a waste of eggs…

19th January 2011, Wednesday
I’ve suddenly been sent so many random emails. They started exactly a week ago with the first email dated 12th January 2011. I didn’t sign up for my contact to be mongered – who gave my “work” email out? Why am I still getting emails after going through their links to be removed from the mailing list? Who is associated with ATCEN communications????!!

20th January 2011, Thursday
At hairdressers again to fix up my blue (which is now dirty teal/green) strip of hair. Gotta love pay day…but $75 for my colour touch-up and trim? This would be the second and the last time I would do this before I get a box of dark brown dye to DIY. It’s too expensive to maintain this one streak.

I’ve got to admit that the blue is pretty cool, though.

25th January 2011, Tuesday
Busy, no-overlap-of-pharmacist day. I’m surviving on one banana, one cup of coffee, one plum and one glass of water since 8am. I am famished! But no break till home time in one hour. Life is tough as a sole charge pharmacist.

Look what I found at Whitcoulls! Can’t believe I missed them (tinyyyy section duh!) last week.

27th January 2011, Thursday
Got a letter from HB DHB and my heart palpitated a little, not knowing what news it brings. Turns out, it was just a cc from the specialist (old news). Phew!

Made pineapple jam in preparation for pineapple tarts. Turned out I had the house to myself and I thought I could do some night baking…but I think not. I am tired from making the jam.

28th January 2011, Friday
Boo! 404am – quake woke me up or I woke up right before the quake? I do not recall but my bed shook for a good few seconds. I dislike it when it happens and I’m home alone…

Quail eggs from CC! They have 6 quails at home and graciously shared some of the eggs with me. I love them and mom usually buys from them from the pasar malam for me.

30th January 2011, Sunday
I am so excited! Had my first video call on phone through Skype with mom. When did the update come through??? The last time I tried to show her the house (and the outside) via Skype on my phone, we could only do voice calls. Wow! Exciting! *geek*

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I got an email beep on iPheR and it was mom saying she got herself an iPhone!

That was SUPER DUPER QUICK! She just mentioned yesterday that she was going to “check it out” today. I’ve been harassing her about getting it (or at least, a phone that could receive or send a text! Her old one just refused to do it, don’t know why) because sometimes I just want to text her something and I would have forgotten by the time we get to chat on Skype.
Wheeee!

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I panicked when Whatsapp died on me…or I thought it did.
I couldn’t load the page and when I open it, I only got this blank page. Non of the icons could be selected either (notice non of the icons are coloured/highlighted).

I decided to delete the app and reinstall into iPheR – voila! All’s good again!

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Remember the roller thing for adding birthdays in my address book?

I asked Eiz and Celynn but both of them replied that they don’t use that feature so they haven’t got a clue. I checked with Jaime’s phone and hers has got the bug, too (I planned on taking it back on Saturday if it didn’t happen to Jaime’s). Then I asked NN if she experiences problem with the same thing and even sent her a screen shot of it.

She replied saying that the roller thing does get on one’s nerves at the beginning but thereafter it would be easy peasy (exact words are kacang puteh) and it will work like magic “once you get it.”

I was very puzzled. I thought she didn’t understand my question and she probably thought I was an idiot not knowing how to use the roller.

THEN! At the same time when I typed a reply to ask what exactly did she mean by “once you get it” (get what??), I found the discussion/forum about the bug being only apparent in NZ. When I changed my time zone to one of Australia’s cities – NO PROBLEM with the dates.

Would they fix it in the next update? I hear the bug has been around for a while.
At least my alarm is not affected and going off an hour earlier than the time on phone.

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While 3G signal is pathetically weak at home, it’s particularly good at the takeaway place I was waiting at in the city centre.

Since I got iPheR, I could “use” my Maxis SIM on the old SE phone I’ve got – look! I got a welcome message. Weird to see this after being here for more than 2 years.

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Oh glee!

Jaime and I were supposed to bike together to McDs for breakfast, then to Noel Leeming (it opens at 9am and Erika starts work then!)…but the weather forecast wasn’t looking good so she offered to pick me up in Suzi.

The plan was still the same and we were at McDs about 910am.
It is a colder day, so I’m glad we decided to ditch biking.

Hotcakes for Jaime.

Yum! Hashbrowns!

After finishing breakfast (I took extra long – oops – and also had TWO drinks!), we were off to the highlight of the day! Noel Leeming!

This is it!

Filling in the re-sign form. I was just posing.

Jaime’s convinced to get one that day, too! Yay!

No waiting, no queues. I got the 32GB one and there were only 2 left.
I’m glad I didn’t wait till next payday – I may have to wait some more if they ran out (?)…like what Sam wished upon us.

At this point, Erika has handed the box+microSIM to me already but I asked her to pass it to me for a photo. I cropped Erika out because she blinked…but she looked fairly happy for me, too.

She asked me to show Hannah when I see her next to convince Hannah that Mac is the way to go.

Jaime then sent me home and she went back to Noel Leeming again with her mom!
We both finally got the phones that we’ve been talking about for MONTHS (because she was sort of waiting for the white one, too).

A rather familiar sight because I had the honour *ahem* of opening Eiz’s unit so that I could “test” it out (and charge/activate) for her before she arrived in NZ to visit me.

Charger and earphones.

Getting iPheR activated (iFeR is my iPod from mom)
See what I mean by it being weird that I didn’t name or want to name my bike??

The time when I finally activated the phone – after getting the phone, going to work because we needed to use the toilet, coming back, taking photos (and the unboxing video), opening the microSIM pack…

This was before I changed the iPhone’s name.

My own now!
Look at that date – that was when Eiz visited me…hmm…but I thought it was February?

Wasted no time and downloaded Whatsapp to surprise the few people I know who has that app (and at the same time, have their number somewhere) – Eiz told me about this app way before I got the phone. She told me “when I get my iPhone”.

My first Whatsapp reply!
My first message was from Jaime, sharing her new number.

The bug that I discovered while manually putting in contacts…and I wasn’t happy about it. Found many forums/discussion boards talking about it but the problem is not resolved yet.

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All in all, I’m really happy with iPheR.
My first smartphone and Whatsapp is my best spent USD1.29 just because so many friends overseas have them.

Like what Celynn said, “It’s what’s inside that counts.”

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It’s payday!
Andrew at TheHub said that my bike would arrive either today or tomorrow – he said he would call me when it’s here. At this point, I’m reluctant to get the bike so I wasn’t hoping for the call (this was because of Jaime’s incident the day before when she was biking home, that sort of made my fear of biking in Hastings valid). In true weird opposite law fashion, I checked my phone and found a voice message (since I missed the call) telling me my ride is here.

I was rather reluctant to part with my paycheck but hey, I’ve made the choice last week. Not backing out now.
Went to TheHub after work to pick it up (and pay for it, too, of course) and I thought that if I folded my back seats down, the bike could fit in the back. No chance of that happening! So I drove back (he offered to deliver it tomorrow morning but who wants it tomorrow??) and walked to TheHub – it’s only less than 10 minutes walk away.

Look who is home?

I like!
Have not thought of giving it a name, which is odd for me because I like to name everything I have.

When is the next payday?

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I’ve read that the white iPhone 4 is being (yet) delayed to Spring 2011. Following that piece of news, I noticed that the picture of the white has been removed from the store…and I read the rumour about it being cancelled. All I wanted to do was to go out and just buy the iPhone (yes, doesn’t matter if it’s not the colour I’ve been WAITING for) because I’ve waited long enough…to be given this piece of news. What was the point again?

I thought that if I were to get one, I’d rather give the commission to someone I know (Hannah has a husband and a sister that works at Noel Leeming)…but I was *this* close to just getting it today.

Then the voicemail came through and uhm…okay, I’ll wait till Saturday when Erika gets to work. Or should I wait till next payday?

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For the white iPhone4.

I’m hoping that the shorter shipping time (for the US, it’s now 1-3 business days when it was previously 3-5 days and 2-3 weeks; for NZ it’s now 2 weeks instead of 3 weeks) means things are picking up.

I know…it’s not something that I need, it’s just another want.
Yet it’s fun to speculate.

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