Still confused

I've been praying pretty hard about my MA Speech Pathology course and there hasn't been much help all round. I think I need more people to encourage me to stay in Melbourne! TELL ME TO STAY IN MELBOURNE!!! TELL ME YOU WANT ME IN MELBOURNE!!! ARGHHHGHHH!

Well, just yesterday, I was leaning so strongly towards Sydney and now, I'm leaning towards staying in Melbourne for another year working full-time and then applying for 2009. What made me think Melbourne again? First, the subject list offered at La Trobe Uni for the previous year seems to be better than the one offered in Sydney. Second, my boss sent me a text message today asking me to work today and I said Yes, but what came after - I was not expecting. It said: "You're a star! Please don't move to Sydney!" Now the scary thing was, I asked God yesterday to show me directon and give me the wisdom, maybe even show me a sign the next morning, that perhaps the course coordinators (whom I've emailed) would mention something in their emails that would assist me in my decision-making process. And then I got my boss' text message. Hmmm...

Dilemma!

Sunday was a long day - first, it was the La Trobe Uni Open Day and second, it was straight to work. Well, on Sunday morning, when I went to La Trobe for the introduction to Speech Pathology, I found out (and I stress - just that morning) that the course I wanted to do is no longer offered for 2008. The reason they gave was because NUS bought their course structure (as some of you might know, NUS is going to have the MA in Speech Pathology, a new intake next year) and apparently, La Trobe Uni is assisting. For the whole of next year, La Trobe Uni will be revising their syllabus in the MA Speech Pathology course and it will be again available in 2009. No way would I want to do it back in Singapore - one, because it's the first intake. And second, because you'll be the "guinea pigs" of that course that year.

So now the questions are:
Should I go up to Sydney instead to study the course? Afterall, the Masters course is offered in two universities - University of Sydney or Macquarie University. There isn't really any other uni in Melbourne to do it, so I guess Sydney was the next option. I could go to Adelaide, Queensland or Perth, but if I do it up in Sydney, I'm also guaranteed to keep my current job and go part-time.

IF I DO GO - PROS:

• I still have a job and can go part-time/casual and can work at more television sites and on more programs.
• I get to work at the new headquarters in Sydney.
• I will have Christina as a housemate.
• I will finish the course by 2009.

CONS:

• I have to do prerequisite subjects or qualifying subjects in linguistics/phonetics in order to be an eligible applicant - probably in summer, end Dec to early Feb.
• I have to look for a church/church group.
• Living expenses will be huge because generally, Sydney is a more expensive city and the moving will cost a fair bit.
• I have to transfer everything from bank accounts, etc...
• I have to drive up.
• I might have to sell Cuddles - not sure if rental accomm will allow pets - I think they're quite strict in certain places in Aust. Apparently some places consider rabbits pests.
• TY and I will most probably split up.

2) Do I want to wait for La Trobe Uni to start its Masters course in 2009? That's a whole year to wait for something and I was so keen to do the course next year (2008).

IF I DO WAIT - PROS:

• I get to work full-time for another year and save more.
• I get to move in with Mary and her Sushi (her rabbit).

CONS:

• I have to get two academic references but I have only got one at the moment.
• I have to write a short 500 word report on PBL learning - should be OK to do I'm thinking.
• I will finish the course in 2010 - that's Beijing Olympics and I actually would love to work a little bit on it.
• Can't really think of any more, except... Do I want to continue working in my job for the next year when I really could be studying something I truly enjoy?

Let me know what you guys think? You guys can comment on it on my Facebook if you wish or in here, as a comment, or on the chatbox...

So see my confusion?
Of course, a move is always exciting. I've done it before and things seemed to have panned out well. It's very deja vu... I left everything in Perth, kept a few close friends, and broke up with a guy there who I went out with for two years because of the long distance. A recurring thing? Dunno. But I guess you'll never really know if you do make the right decision or the wrong one - it's just a step of faith right?

Dying Blogs

Is it just me or everyone doesn't seem to be blogging anymore? Come on, guys - a few words of encouragement - at least 10 mins per day or week? I guess you don't have to write everything that's been going on... Of course if you have a personal journal, it's great cause you can pen down everything you've been meaning to say from your heart. For me, I've got the blog and journal. Journal to write down things I wouldn't write in my blog, and blog to share what I've been up to. It's just nice to be able to go back through entries and see how you grow through your writings. It's also a great way to keep in touch with people I reckon. So guys, don't give up! Keep blogging!!

After effects of Sydney

After coming back from Sydney, I feel zonked out. Went straight back to work for 6 days straight, had one day off and then now, it's another 6 days straight. That one day off didn't even feel like it happened. There were lots of birthdays and gatherings. And I feel I need a rest or a getaway to somewhere with just a stream flowing by and the weather cool and the wind gently brushing against your face. Haha... I think the days will only start to get better from Tuesday next week, 'cause I have a short shift that day followed by two roster day-offs - unless of course they call me back into work because someone's fallen ill or they're short. I guess I could always say no, but any form of income will be good to add to rent.

Oh, my off days this week is Thursday and Saturday, but I'll probably catch up with chores and finish off my travel course notes (seems a while since I've looked at them, but it's 3 years distance learning anyway and I can take my time). And La Trobe Open Day is this Sunday 26th! Looking forward to it and seeing what the speech pathology course is going to offer me. TY's going to accompany me which is really sweet. The thing starts from 9am which means I have to wake up super early to get there because it's about an hour and a bit from my place, and then guess what? I have to go to work straight after that - on a shift that ends at 11:30pm. I'm going to be so incredibly tired that day I reckon.

Boggle on Facebook

It seems that my colleagues, most of who have Facebook are addicted to Boggle. I dunno... To tell you the truth, I lost my Facebook account. Might sign up again... but I might end up getting addicted to it. Hmmm... At least it'd give me something to do I guess when I'm waiting for my late updates over at Ch 9.

Sushi Visiting

Sushi (Mary's rabbit) came over last night, because Mary had an inspection at her place today. Sushi was alright, until TY tried to feed her this morning before he left for work, and she bit him on the finger and arm till he bled. Ouch! Strange that Sushi didn't bite me though, 'cause last night I stuck my toes in her cage and she smelt it and rubbed her nose against them. Hmmm...

First time on new work shift

This morning, woke up at 8am and went to work to do the BBC at 9am. It was my first time on the shift and I was pretty excited. But when I started, it ended up to be pretty hard - all these names that I didn't really have time to prep for or just couldn't remember how I trained the pronunciations in my dictionary. So I kept saying this man, that man, this person... etc...

While I was on air, TY was at his work desk which was just around the corner, and after the news ended, he said I sounded very Australian. Really? Hee.

Anyway, the first few segments came out really good but after that I lost concentration and I think I just started repeating the same words and my sentences came out without making any sense. It wasn't totally jibberish - more like baby-talk. Pretty embarrassing when you go over your work again. Oh well, there's always a first time for everything I guess.

Back in good ol' Melb!

It was straight back into work from Sydney - the day I got off the plane, the day I worked in the Melbourne office. It was pretty much nonstop. Plus after my shift in Melbourne, I had a friend's bday party.

It's been good though. Managed to catch up with all my church peeps over here, and Mary and the gang, and my pets, and especially TY.

What I have been doing since I came back besides work:
1) Xin Jie's bday bash at Bell's

2) Mary and gang's yum cha at Tai Pan in Doncaster East.

3) TY brought me out to this stoned grill Japanese place. It was our first time trying stone grill and it was really nice - expensive, but nice. But TY decided to bring me out for a special dinner and he paid for the whole thing.

4) It was Wai Hong's graduation, but I couldn't attend because of work, so I sent my representative - TY.

5) Kara got whinier while I was away apparently. But she's still as cute as ever. And I think Cuddles has put on some weight.

6) My sis is going for laser eye surgery.

7) My parents are in London with relatives.

8) I got my tax return back, got paid for work, got a free bronze upgrade for my Roadside Assistance with RACV *nods head* - and um, followed by credit card bills. *shakes head*

9) TY and I cooked Korma chicken curry last night!

And all this happened in the span of 2 days.

3rd and 4th day of work in Syd

The third day of work in Sydney, there was a steno, so I didn't need to voice much stuff. I just checked tapes according to vision, assisted the trainers and edited the trainees work. In fact, it was a quieter day and the only time I meebo-ed. But at 5pm, it was news preparation and pretty much crunch time, and I had to really work hard till 9pm. At least it wasn't as busy as the first two days where I couldn't even look at my phone to SMS or meebo. After work, I had a quiet night - did a hotel dinner order which came quite late, and slept. I think I really needed that sleep because every day I had been waking up at 7am. I really don't know why... Maybe it's the sun shining through my hotel room, maybe the weather or the environment or just too excited that I'm up in Sydney working.

By the way, I signed up for an Internet connection at my hotel - broadband - but the connection was really bad and it wasn't work very well. It only started working well on the fourth day. How crappy... Grr! Not that I'm complaining that much, because the Internet at work is super fast - the only downfall is, you might have to be careful with the personal stuff.

The fourth day was a busier day than the third. In the morning, I woke early and had a walk around the city. Oh, I did that on the third day as well during lunchtime and nearly got lost - was trying to find the Myers and stopped at the wrong station, so I had to walk all the way up to the next one. The good thing was I wasn't really in a rush so I got to take my own time. But it seemed weird walking slowly in Sydney looking around, because everyone seems to be go, go, go. Anyway, I shopped for a bit, returned to the hotel to put my bags and headed off for work.

When I got to work, there was a massage therapist and I was like, "Oh yeah, I need a massage!" Good thing I had one, because it ended up to be a really hectic day at work. We had a steno come in, but we just had more programs to do. In fact, I was about to leave earlier to meet a good friend in the city, but all of a sudden, the steno crashed with the rugby going to air and I had to take over. It was good experience actually to work on the rugby because I had never done anything like that. A good challenge. And with the amazing software we use for live voicing up there, I was like "Yeah baby!" - I felt so confident doing it because there were hardly any mistakes, just little stumbling words like "it's" coming out as "this" and "they" as "there" or "their" that weren't very important.

Anyway, I managed to message my friend to tell him what was going on and that I'd be late, and then messaged him again later to tell him that I'm still waiting for a cab. It was ridiculous waiting for a cab where I was because it takes about 20 minutes to half an hour - just waiting. And when you book for a cab, the phone puts you through to a robot who does the taxi booking for you. It's kinda strange because you are near the reception, and you have to say really loudly "Yes, Check or No" and the suburb name to the robot on the phone - it just seems that everyone can hear you. The worst thing is that every voice c-a-p-t-i-o-n-e-r working there has the same problem - that the robot doesn't understand what they say, especially when it comes to the suburb part. If it doesn't understand the first time, it'd get you to repeat yourself a second time, and the third time, you're put through to an actual human operator, which is better of course.

Oh, the fourth day of work in Sydney was my last, because in the morning, I had late notice from the boss in Sydney and my boss in Melbourne that Melbourne is pretty short-staffed and I'm needed back immediately on the next available flight. I could have left on the midnight flight but because accommodation was already booked for four nights, I decided to choose a morning flight, but the only flight available was before 8am. All the other Virgin flights were pretty full. Bad timing though, because the flight was the next day and the night before, I already promised my friend I'd meet him. Plus I didn't want to cancel as I hadn't seen him for a while. So after the dinner with my friend and by the time I got back, it was close to midnight. I hadn't even packed, but I just went to bed and then woke up at 4am and started packing, then checked out at 5am and got to the airport by 5.45am, checked in just in time and boarded the 7am flight back to Melbourne. I really didn't get much sleep. First, my flight was delayed and by the time I got home, it was about 9 plus... Slept for about 2 hours and then had to wake to head into work for the 1pm shift at the Melbourne office. I ended work at 9pm and then headed to Bell's for Xin Jie's bday. So yeah, it was a pretty exhausting day.

It's good to be back, but I really miss Sydney - the weather, my colleagues up there, my skin is better, I find myself not as tired and I get to do more stuff... But yeah, in Melbourne, there's Tee wee, my car, my Cuddles (the rabbit), his Kara (the cat), it seems much safer walking around at night, the roads are not as confusing and the taxi drivers are not "mad". Yeah, one of the taxi driver's for example lost his way and then asked me how to get there. I obviously didn't know how and so he stopped in the middle of the highway to ask his mate, and then after he found the directions, he was like "It's ok, you can pay cheaper. I found the way and I'll take you fast." And boy, he sped! He went into these side roads and at two roundabouts, he drove straight on each one. It was really looney driving. I was literally hanging to the edge of my seat. He even sweared at himself making the wrong turnings and apologised to me a lot. But in the end, he still charged me full price. Of course I didn't mind because I had a cab charge, but if I didn't, I might have kicked a fit. That wasn't the funniest thing... At the start of the journey, he even gave me a sheet of paper saying "Vote me for Taxi Driver of the Year." At the start he seemed friendly enough, so I was starting to fill the form, but at the end of the journey, I just chucked it in the bin. The sheet of paper even had about five or six check points. The first was "Knowledge of skills and roads" - No! The second was "Safety and Comfort ensured throughout journey" - No! Can't remember the rest...

Why I prefer my colleagues up there - lots of stuff really that makes a big difference. There's definitely less tension around, everyone's really accommodating and nice. There hasn't been one person who I seem to not like. But that's not really the main point. It's an important point, but also, the way they work - they share their bulletins a lot more, people don't stick to the rostered shifts they're on, they just simply share everything. Over in Melb, they get a bit like "This is my bulletin, don't touch it" kind of attitude. People in Melb put their initials in every work they do, but in Sydney they don't and everyone respects the supervisor there, because whatever they change, everyone goes along with it - no question asked - which should be the way, because the supervisor is put there and was trained for that position and they know what is right and wrong in terms of style issues. But somehow, in Melb, people go against the supervisor - they change the supervisor's work, they question the supervisor - even disagree with the supervisor. It's like all these tension we don't need. And people whisper among themselves which is not great. Over in Sydney, they don't. They probably only talk about people when people are not around, but valid reasons I reckon. Sigh... politics... I try to avoid them.

The strange thing is that in Melb, we have a window to look out and we're able to see what's the weather like, or look at the nice views around - in Sydney and at the Ch 9 in Melb, we don't, and the people are nicer. Also in the Melb office, there's this added tension of clashing personalities and people just sulking because they had a bad day, or just one person intending to pick at every mistake you make in an embarrassing manner.

Another thing - in the Ch 9 Melb, I don't find many departments wanting to get to know about the c-a-p-t-i-o-n-i-n-g department and the people working in it, but in Sydney, it's like almost every department wants to know what you do or tries to understand anyway or make conversation - even the news reporters, the ones on TV, come up to our department and talk to us.

Oh, just got me thinking about Sydney office again... did I mention the food at Ch 9 Sydney is excellent? They have lunch and dinner, which is sooo good. In Ch 9 Melb, they only have lunch and the cafe closes at about 5pm. In Sydney, cafe closes about 7.30pm I think.

So yeah, I think the working environment for my company is better in Sydney and it'll be easy to transfer over there in terms of work. Sydney also has more options available with regards to doing speech pathology next year. I did consider transferring, but I'll definitely miss TY, and also, Sydney's more expensive to live. For now, I think I'll just stay put and go to La Trobe uni over here.

Day 1-2 working in Sydney

Sydney's great! I had never worked in Sydney, so it was a good change. Everyone was really nice and welcoming - making me feel like moving up here... The environment is just so much more enjoyable - even people from the other departments come and talk to you. I have to say the first day was overwhelming. I never imagined the Ch 9 building site to be so huge. You think Ch 9 in Melb is huge - this site was all grilled off, right to the security gatehouse - it looked like a massive prison with satellite dishes and lots of little buildings around it and the main one near the security gatehouse. At the security gate, there's even this metal gate thing that you have to swipe your card to go through. And even when you do go through, at reception (you go through two sliding doors before you get to reception) and still have to report that you're there with proof of ID - I guess you don't have to do this step for regular staff, but most people do.

I got a visitor pass the first day. Now, I've got a casual pass. =) After my security check and all was OK - the supervisor on shift showed me around, and boy, I got lost. It really is a tricky maze in there.

The building wasn't the only thing that was overwhelming. The actual shift I was on was crazy - three news bulletins with heavy writing stuff - you have to voice or speak a lot of missing stuff (about 60% of the bulletin). The bad thing was, I was thrown into the deep end with the dodgy computer so my work probably wasn't the best. It would help if the comp was faster. =( In fact, everyone tries to avoid that computer whenever they can because it's so slow. For instance, changing a colour usually takes a split second, but this computer takes about 6 seconds, and it drives everyone crazy. They're trying to get Tech Services to replace the comp. But for now, they seem to be suffering with it. So anyway, the shift went well. There were three trainees and there were lots of stuff to do, you practically couldn't go on meebo or check email or sms or call someone on the phone - until after 8pm (and my shift ends at 9pm, but even so, I had to help out the trainees, so no chat, no email, nothing of that). So yeah, it is pretty tight here. I didn't imagine how tight it would be, but it is. I guess now I know.

Day 2 was more intense, because there were only two trainees and work was piled. We were all sitting in the wrong seats, and there was no-one to flick me on air. Apparently someone else had to patch me in separately for some live writing and no-one did because they were so short and they were busy with something else. So it was a bummer. I met more people though... A lot of people whose names start with "A".

Anyway, for dinner, I took a cab (had cab charges and didn't want to waste any of them) and joined one of my colleagues, Cat, and her boyfriend at this seafood restaurant in Crows Nest. The food was really good and it was affordable. The colleague I had dinner with - she's actually from the UK and moved to Sydney not long ago and she came to Melb to help out with the new voice sofware, and we hit it off pretty well. So yeah, she took me out tonight which was awesome. She, her boyfriend and I chatted about lots of stuff, and after dinner, showed them my hotel room, and we spoke till about 12:35am. They had to work the next morning at 8am so I kinda felt bad holding them up. Oops...

Well, I must mention the hotel I'm in. It's the Vibe Hotel in Nth Syd in Milsons Pt. Apparently Milsons Pt is a really wealthy suburb. In fact, the Prime Minister's house - Kiribilli House - is not far from where I live. I love my room too. It's got a great view of the Harbour and the Milsons train station (it's not directly in front where I see the wheels of the train, it's overlooking it - just across the road in front of my hotel, so at a distance...). My room's also got a very comfy homey feel to it, it's great. The only thing is I get the morning sun and even though the curtains are drawn, the sun is really bright and the heat comes through - makes me have to get up really early in the morn. Tomorrow, I'm gonna try and have some hotel breakfast and then explore the place a little bit. Didn't get much chance today cause I was called into work earlier... but I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Missing TY, my animals and everyone in Melb!
Jetting off now to my pillow. Nites!

Another Bday this month!

Happy Bday Belldy!!

Her name is actually Clarabell, Bell for short... but I accidentally called her Belldy before, and her bf is Welldy. Hee! It's rhymable.

And her bday wasn't today, but on the 2nd of August, Thursday...

We had a little surprise party at her place, but I came late, so I just ate the food... Hee! I was there for the presents though and I must say she had a few crazy and nasty pressies like a real-life dead rat and Welldy's cat's poo. Despite the gross ones, she had an awesome card that someone made in the form of piano keys. I must say the cell is pretty creative to do that, and all the cards for the month. Oh, TY and I gave Bell a green bag, but I couldn't resist passing it to her on TY's bday and so Bell had already opened it. Hee! It's OK... I encouraged her to open it.

What I think of Bell? I think she's very talented - musically... and very creative also with the jewellery making and stuff in her room, and she prefers dogs. Hee! But Bell, hopefully, I get to know you more as the years go by.

Cancer Vaccine

Had my first cervical cancer vaccine shot and it was painful. The doc said it is like a tetanous shot, but I don't think I can recall ever having one, so I didn't realise how painful it was - just say it was slightly worse than a normal injection. It was pretty strange too that when the doc injected the needle into my muscle, it started spasing... Weird. This is the first trial in Australia so I was a bit sceptical at first, but it's been here for a month and no-one's ended up with anything severe, so I decided to go with it. It's good also, cause at the moment, the government's giving out the vaccine for free, for people aged 18-26. The vaccine is three shots and you can't take it all at once, so you have to go back within a few months. But because my bday is in Jan and I'll be over 26, the doc said I can have my second one in a month's time and the third one in 4 months time, so it'll just be nice, or else I'd have to pay for my third - one injection is worth $150! So at least I'll be able to just scrap through.

The doc said that the worse symptom someone had from the vaccine was fainting, but that particular patient was walking around a lot after having the shot - so it wasn't serious. Some of my other friends who had it said their arm became really numb (like when they had the flu vaccine). I guess I'm lucky then, cause I had the shot two days ago, and my arm is fine. In fact, I felt more energised after the shot, and immediately after going home, I decided to clean the house. I vaccumed the entire house including the bedrooms, cleaned the toilet, did laundry, cleared the dishes, cleaned Cuddles' cage and tidied a bit of my room - yeah, quite proud of myself. It's not really about self-praise, but also to remind myself to do this more often, cause I felt quite accomplished after doing it. *smiles* Hooray! But then after that, I did feel a bit faint... So I don't think it's a really good idea after the vaccine to be overworking. TY made me feel better though, because after his work, he took me out to Highpoint for dinner and some retail therapy and when we returned home, we watched the entire Big Bro final on tape - didn't realise it went on for so long. TY stayed up to keep me company so it was sweet.

Sydney trip

Apparently the hotel I'm staying at is half an hour away from Ch 9 by bus. I was quite worried because I'm not familiar with North Sydney and my shifts end late almost every day when I'm there, so I went to Borders yesterday to try and find a bus map or a route map, but to no avail. Then found a really good website that allowed you to key in the exact location of where you are going, and from where. The site gave me four options that seemed pretty good, but it still looked quite inconvenient - the first option, to take the train opposite the hotel to the next train station where you take a bus all the way to Ch 9 - remember the bus route itself is half an hour, so it'd probably be about 30-40 minutes travelling time altogether. The second option is, to walk to that train station and take the bus all the way to Ch 9. If I walk to the train station where the bus stop is, it will be about 15-20 minutes... so all in all, the journey would probably take 50 minutes. Unfortunately there are only two bus routes to Ch 9, and only one of the bus routes is near my hotel... Yeah, pretty inconvenient and out of the way.

Today though, some good news - my boss has given me cab charges for the airport, back and forth, and to work and back from the hotel. So am happy and relieved.

Well, leaving Tuesday till the weekend! I'll be bringing my laptop, so hopefully I can meebo or msn if the Internet charges at the hotel is not too expensive.