whoopwhoop!

so my car's finally here.

i have to say, i was less than impressed when i first looked into it - it looks pretty good outside, but peeking in, it looks quite old and grubby. i was so disappointed after seeing all the marks in the cabin.

the previous owner of the car didnt look after it. i doubt they even cleaned it since owning the car and i doubt they cared about it at all. the poor car was covered in grub, dust, dust bunnies and lots of marks here and there. not only that, there was rubbish here and there which i found rather annoying.

the car arrived with a flat battery so the guy at the compliance place jump started it for my dad and the petrol meter was sitting at 0. we had no choice but to drive it straight home as we couldnt fill up at the gas station without risking the car to die on us half way home.

once it was home, i started cleaning it. the first task was to remove all the writing on the glass panel and windows which was a 100% hardwork. next was to clean all the glass panels and windows as it was covered with all the muck from the writing. then it was washing the body itself, scrubbing and scraping all the grime off which was 101% hardwork. then it was getting rid of all the dirt stuck in the glass panel, which for some reason, no matter how many times and how hard i wash it, it's still black - so i've decided to leave it for now, and send it for a wash at the gas station when the car's dirty again.

while washing, it started raining. but because i was quite wet already, i decided to keep washing so i started cleaning all the other parts like wheels, rims, and wipers and finally went inside. i took a short break while waiting for the rain to ease and was out again after the last drop of rain fell.

i had to wipe everything down and try to get rid of all the marks inside the car which is impossible - they must've been there forever. i'm gonna go purchase a carpet cleaner to try to remove all those marks. then it was the vacuuming. gosh that must've been the hardest part. all the yucky stuff were under the mats and i spent ages vacuuming them. then i had to vacuum the mats as well which wasn't too bad i guess. then i started wiping again, thinking "gosh how can ANYONE have such a filthy car?!"

and finally i fixed up the number plates and did some more wiping down here and there. voila! the car looks acceptable now :)

dad said "oh the car looks so much better now that it's all clean!" *smug grin*

anyway, the car itself is pretty good. it picks up speed quite fast, unlike my old mazda, but one thing that's a -ve is the steering. i dont think it's a power steering, but i might be wrong. it just seems heavier than the other cars. other than that, i'm pretty happy with its performance :)

will post photos up when i have some. nite!

happYness!

- my car is ready for pick-up so we're going once daddy's ready :D
- our guitar's all tuned coz our tuner arrived today. yippee!
- our bundle of joy is arriving in march...come back in march and us me what the bundle of joy is :p
- my papaw ointment is working its magic - joanne, just wait ya! i think i'll ask my bro to bring it back for you!!
- i lost 1-2kgs, but i think i lost muskles, hence the flabbiness. I NEED TO START WORKING OUT AGAIN!!

now, the greatest joy of all - i'm going to collect my car NOW. BYEE!

swim teacher!

my shadowing went quite well yesterday. i was super nervous before that as i had to drive there myself (in my daddy's big car!) and the traffic was quite heavy, and i wasn't too sure if i was on the right track. besides, i was running a little late.....

but once i jumped into the pool, i settled down and the person i was shadowing with was really cool. i think she's south african, judging from her accent, and she's been teaching for over 20 years now. she's really cool with kids and have patience that i have never seen before - it reaches the sky and beyond :p

then i went with another instructur called winner. pretty cool name aye! she basically explained to me a few things about working there and some tips and tricks to teach kids, which was pretty awesome!

time just went ticktockticktock and before i knew it, it was 5.45pm already, which means i've been teaching for over 2 hours without realising! see, when you enjoy doing something, time just flies by without you realizing!

anyway, they told me yesterday that the shadowing was to make sure i'll enjoy teaching and working with the people there. i think they're all very very cool and nice people - didn't see anyone i didnt like or seem bitchy or bossy. the pool is awesome as it's bromine and chlorine free, so i didnt smell like a walking bottle of chlorine after soaking in there for over 2 hours. somehow, the water had a soft and smooth feel - when i was in the water and when i rub my skin, it feels really nice and soft and smooth! i wonder why?

they use some ozone process thingy to keep the water clean which is pretty impressive coz the water looks much cleaner than the swimming school at LEP. i'll be more than happy to accept the job once they offer me UNLESS the pay is lower than what i'm getting :p

back to microbiology. t00dles!

ps: i will post the wedding pics up soon!

the wedding came and ended, my relatives have also came and gone (actually they're still at the airport, or maybe boarding the plane now), and all the stress for the wedding came and went too!

it felt kinda surreal that day. i was sitting in church, thinking "wow, this is it" when i saw my bro all dressed up, and reality smacked me in the face when i saw my sister in law walking down the aisle with her dad. i am officially a sister in law now :D

not like it made any difference, coz i've always thought of her as my sister in law anyway.

the ceremony was beautiful, though i thought it was a tad rushed. it didnt even last an hour, and i am kinda bummed that i didnt get any nice pics of her walking down the aisle - she walked a bit too fast! and when i have some nice pictures, some idiot professional photographer has to be in the way! he better show us some nice photos! grrr..

and the reception itself was ok - i didnt really like the staff at the restaurant, including the boss, coz they weren't very helpful. they agreed that they'll be the one filling up the drinks, instead of living bottles on the tables for guests to do it themselves. we came home with SO many half or 1/3 full bottles, just because of them being lazy.

another thing was, the boss had this really angry look on his face for half the night, which really annoyed me. we're there to celebrate a happy cause, and to look at your dumb angry face! some of the staff had the same look too, but you know what? you're catering for almost 100 people, so it's expected that you would have heaps of stuff to do...dont have to show your grumpy face ok!

besides, we gave you guys the cake at the end of the night to say thank you, and i think my bro gave them a red packet each to thank them as well. i just think it's really rude to be a waitress and show your grumpy face when people are there to have a good time...

but all in all, we thought it went well, except for a few hiccups here and there :)

one thing for sure though, i am never going back to my usual hairdresser - he totally screwed up our timing due to lack of professionalism, and not knowing what their customers want. furthermore, everytime i throw in a suggestion, he'll just brush me off and start saying something else. HELLO IT'S MY HAIR OK and i'm PAYING you to do it!

we got there 2 hours before the time i wanted to be home to do my make up and stuff. his wife sat us down and stood beside her husband and just did nothing. then 20 minutes later, she came back and told my sister to sit down at the other chair. she then started doing this and that to my sister's hair WITHOUT even asking what sort of style we want or what we have in mind. she just started...and then 10 minutes into it, she started saying that my sister's hair is too fine and it's very hard to style. 20 minutes into it, she was saying her hair wouldn't stay after being styled. so i suggested that she used a curling thong to curl her hair and then style it up from there. she nodded, but continued to do what she was doing. where's the curling thong? i bet you they dont even have one!

almost an hour into it, she wasn't even done done half of my sister's hair. i was thinking an hour each would be more than enough, but i assumed wrong. after about 15 more minutes, she finally finished with my sister's hair. at this time, my sister looked as if she was about to start crying. they then started on mine, and again, they didnt ask what i i had in mind. noo...they just kept brushing and brushing and brushing.

i was really disappointed with the way they've done our hair. after the wedding, i came home to remove all the hair pins, only to discover i have a slight bump at the top of my head where they kept pushing the hair pins in very rough. it was SO painful!! i've never come across any hair dressers who just push the pins in without asking if it hurts or anything. and i certainly haven't come across any hairdresser who is SO rough!

arrghh!

just talking about it makes me so damn angry! i'm going to have my shower now coz i need to be a swim teacher shadow at 3.30pm today. bye!

tomorrow's the big day!

...and i have super smexy manly voice.

me: harro! what do you want me to do with the music?
bro: *silence* ... *silence* why your voice like that one! tomorrow can meh??
me: er...*giggles like a man* can la can la

it's not that bad la! i can still talk :p

--

i've been reading a lot about Lucas' Papaw Ointment - initially it was for me to treat eczema or to stop the itch, but as i was google-ing it, a lot of people mentioned they used it as a lip balm.

i've purchased a small tube online today (as it wasn't available in pharmacies - they only have those in the humungous jars!) so i'll tell you all about the fuss after trying it. but the best thing is, someone said their baby's eczema went away completely after using it for several days.

joanne, if it really works, i'll buy some and send it back to you so your sis can use it ok!!

--

just got a txt from my colleague saying that it's been nice working with all of us. it was his last day today, and a couple of them went out for steamboat in newmarket, and then everyone else joined them for bowling at panmure. kinda gutted that i couldnt join them, but oh well..

feel kinda sad that he's leaving coz i have this thing for us "trio" who did the seasonal training together. peter, brendan and me. peter's the one leaving to join the police force, so it's just me and brendan left...

hmm...wonder how long more i wanna stay there...

dont know how many of you noticed this in the past, but i have heaps of scars on my arms and legs right? righttttt?

some of them were from insect/ mozzy bites, some of them were from me being careless and scraping myself here and there and dont bother about it (coz i think putting a band aid over a cut or scrape is for pansies :p ) and it'll eventually scare coz i have very sensitive and bad skin.

the more recent scars however, are from this skin condition called.....eczema, aka atopic dermatitis. how the heck did i end up getting that? well, i have no idea. must be some weird concoction available in NZ air that's causing it? but really, i have no clue.

my skin starts itching real badly when i am cold or hot (usually cold) and when i'm stressed out. it usually starts around my ankles, and then everywhere else starts itching. the thing with this itch is, if you dont scratch it, it drives you crazy. if you scratch it, it drives you crazy too! so what am i to do?

i dont know.

i have a hydrocortisone cream which helps relief the itch, but it's not fixing eczema. i dont know if there's a cure to it, coz it's usually in little kids and it goes away when they turn 5, usually. but i'm 22. so will it go away or what?!

funny thing is, my dad's the only other person in my family who has it. it's not contagious btw, so please don't run away when you see me! when my dad went to see the doc, they had no idea what it was. they thought it was an allergy reaction to something, but his only appears on his back and body. so my mum changed the soap, and it didnt get better. back to the doctor he went, and they still dont know what it is!

..

i only realized it was eczema when i was reading karen cheng's blog coz her son has eczema and she mentioned some of the symptoms and then a lightbulb flashed at the top of my head. and that was when i realised my dad and i have eczema too. i did more readings on eczema and realised the only thing i can do to help with the condition is to keep moisturizing and to keep my finger nails short (which i dont!). another way is to put band aids over the itchy spots so i dont scratch them and end up scarring them.

*sigh* guess i'll be walking around with heaps of band aids for a while :p time to go stock up on 'em band aids! and yes, i'm a pansy for using band aids! LOL~

aiya...

so hard la, when i have to rely on someone to carpool! i know i know, i've rant-ed about this before..but omg, today is extreme! i woke up at 6.15, thinking that we'd be leaving at 7am as usual. i waited and waited, and not long after, the sun was high and bright in the sky. it was 7.15am already. we never leave that late, so i txt-ed her. no reply. 5 minutes later, i sent another txt, and got a reply. she just woke up.

...

and she said she'll leave at around 9, for our labs at 10. hm....

so now, i have over an hour to wait.

i really cant wait to get my car. it arrives tmr, and it'll be sent for compliance check. bro said i should get it on tuesday or wed of next week. cant wait cant wait!

ps: i do appreciate that she's giving me rides to and fro uni you know! in fact, since she refuses to gimme a price to pay her, i'm gonna work it out and just give her a lump sum. i feel bad!