Occasionally you get one of those days, much like the recent Canberra trip except on a smaller scale.
Yesterday I was supposed to have a drive test to convert to a Victorian drivers license. So I rented a car for the day just to do the test and maybe travel outside the city for once. Everything seems to be peachy until I showed up for my test. It turns out that I brought everything for the test except my passport which was the primary document that one should bring. Felt so stupid. I quickly went back home to get it but because they were full for the day, I had the option of waiting for someone to cancel the drive test or to reschedule. I, of course, chose to wait. About two hours went by and it seemed like I was not going to get lucky and was going to reschedule.
But I did get lucky at the very last minute and manage to get a tester. All the administration stuff was handled and I headed to the car waiting for the tester to come. Now the confusing part: the tester came to my car and asked me to roll down the window and started heading back into the building as if he had forgotten something. Half way there, he turned back and walked towards me and notified me that I cannot do the test because the car's registration had been suspended. How on earth did he suddenly know about this when there was nothing to indicate that someone had just told him en route back to the building? The bigger question mark was why did the car rental company give me a suspended car?
So of course I was questioned and they thought it was pretty strange and I thought I was going to be in serious trouble. I called the car rental company and told them about my situation and they said it was fine on their side. I gave them my contact number to let me know what had happened and what they were going to do about it. Apparently phones on their side were ringing all the way up to the head office. Eventually I spoke to the manager about it and said that there might have been a discrepancy somewhere, just that one of the parties involved may not have updated the records correctly. Or something like that. The tester told me that I was not to drive the car at all because it is now illegal and had to urge the car company to get the car and possibly get me a new car. So stressed.
By that time, I cannot do the test for sure and so I had to reschedule to the next available time which is in 6 weeks time. Man, and I waited 6 weeks to get to this point already. So because there is no point in getting them to bring in a new car, I told the manager of the company to just take the car and I'll just get back myself. Everything was refunded (hopefully) and I've just wasted half the day. Even if I did bring my passport the first time round, I'd still wouldn't have done the test because of the whole registration issue. Wow. The tester who was with me when all of this happened was very helpful and overall great guy even though he had this slightly intimidating presence. Looked a lot like my Java lecturer mixed with Craig from Masterchef.
Meh.
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I never did like the term "stock market" or any similiar metaphor/analogue of potential...erm, pairings. Though it is "nice" way of putting it, I find that it's a lot of bull and think it has no real value. Much like me in one of them "stock markets". Not that I care about it.
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I wish I had read this before I went to try and do my PhD. If I did, I probably would have recognized the signs that this is not what I should be doing. At least not right then. And might have ended up in a completely different future.
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I think I'm even more scared now after an in-passing conversation because I'm pretty sure that I don't have it. And I'm nowhere brave enough to gamble. And will probably be shot down if I did.
Petrificus Totalus.
Poker Face
Monday, September 12, 2011
at
3:06 AM
Another weekend gone, another two days where I should be doing other things but end up not getting them done. Super lazy and procrastinating a lot in addition to the new Worms game that I have been playing. Did I mention that I also haven't been getting much sleep too?
This was one of the few rare occasions that I had a meal with some of the *much* younger OCFers. A nicely sized group of 6 people all with an age gap of at least 4 years. And I think I am quite happy about it. None of those 20+ people gatherings where all you pretty much get is silliness, rarely anything of substance. Oh and the noise too. Discussions were made about various things that you'd probably will never get in big group settings. Makes you know more about a person and perhaps in an efficient matter too.
In fact, I can't remember when was the last time I had a decently sized conversation where no one was attached or had some "weird" dynamics between a few people (myself including). This might not seem to be like a big deal to most but given the circumstances in the past couple of years and how terribly lost I felt, this small simple meal together was something very refreshing. Also, given a person of my age, you start to "lose" a lot of your friends who you used to have these same types of conversations years ago by virtue of being attached, getting married or raising a family. You can still have fairly decent conversations with them but it is not the same anymore. How and why is it not the same, I lack the vocabulary to describe it. But being able to relive that moment for a short while, has been worth while.
For a person in my position, "losing" friends extend beyond the realm of relationships. Things of stereotypical status value like a job and a decent income, years of work experience, cars, property ownership and many others are also grounds for this phenomenon. I once describe this to a friend that it is like being into an exclusive club where membership starts by ticking the right boxes as described above. As though you were treated like a proper adult and no longer a student which seems to have a level of immaturity stigma attached to it. Once you've made it into this club, a whole range of events and activities are right at your doorstep for you to choose from. Or maybe it's because I'm just boring.
But like most of the time, I have to put up a front that say everything is peachy and I don't care about such things (but actually do, a bit) while deep down there are many things that need fixing. I've also mentioned to some close friends of mine that events in the past 3 years have shaken me pretty badly. Even closer friends tell me that they can see through me and one has gone to the extent of saying that the change of my blog background theme and how I write on my blog were reflective of my changes in response (never really thought of it that way. I thought it was just cool to use this theme). These friends are the ones who keep me sane whether they know it or not. They make me feel that none of these meaningless things that I have been thinking or worrying about matter and it soothes the soul of this aging man. The best part? They are a very small group of people, around 6 of them.
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Even more generic poking! This time by the "kids". Deploy deflector shields and evasive maneuver beta. Engage!
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To the 6 people who have filled in my Johari window, thanks for your input. Most of them I am not surprised by except for one or two. To the two of you have haven't filled in my Nohari window yet, it must have been difficult to narrow down my negatives to 6 choices but please do try. I think I know all of you.
To the rest of you, refer to the previous entry and please complete your analysis of me and let me know. I think it's about high time that you criticize me in 6 words or less online. Links are here again if you need it: Johari and Nohari.
This was one of the few rare occasions that I had a meal with some of the *much* younger OCFers. A nicely sized group of 6 people all with an age gap of at least 4 years. And I think I am quite happy about it. None of those 20+ people gatherings where all you pretty much get is silliness, rarely anything of substance. Oh and the noise too. Discussions were made about various things that you'd probably will never get in big group settings. Makes you know more about a person and perhaps in an efficient matter too.
In fact, I can't remember when was the last time I had a decently sized conversation where no one was attached or had some "weird" dynamics between a few people (myself including). This might not seem to be like a big deal to most but given the circumstances in the past couple of years and how terribly lost I felt, this small simple meal together was something very refreshing. Also, given a person of my age, you start to "lose" a lot of your friends who you used to have these same types of conversations years ago by virtue of being attached, getting married or raising a family. You can still have fairly decent conversations with them but it is not the same anymore. How and why is it not the same, I lack the vocabulary to describe it. But being able to relive that moment for a short while, has been worth while.
For a person in my position, "losing" friends extend beyond the realm of relationships. Things of stereotypical status value like a job and a decent income, years of work experience, cars, property ownership and many others are also grounds for this phenomenon. I once describe this to a friend that it is like being into an exclusive club where membership starts by ticking the right boxes as described above. As though you were treated like a proper adult and no longer a student which seems to have a level of immaturity stigma attached to it. Once you've made it into this club, a whole range of events and activities are right at your doorstep for you to choose from. Or maybe it's because I'm just boring.
But like most of the time, I have to put up a front that say everything is peachy and I don't care about such things (but actually do, a bit) while deep down there are many things that need fixing. I've also mentioned to some close friends of mine that events in the past 3 years have shaken me pretty badly. Even closer friends tell me that they can see through me and one has gone to the extent of saying that the change of my blog background theme and how I write on my blog were reflective of my changes in response (never really thought of it that way. I thought it was just cool to use this theme). These friends are the ones who keep me sane whether they know it or not. They make me feel that none of these meaningless things that I have been thinking or worrying about matter and it soothes the soul of this aging man. The best part? They are a very small group of people, around 6 of them.
--------------------
Even more generic poking! This time by the "kids". Deploy deflector shields and evasive maneuver beta. Engage!
-------------------
To the 6 people who have filled in my Johari window, thanks for your input. Most of them I am not surprised by except for one or two. To the two of you have haven't filled in my Nohari window yet, it must have been difficult to narrow down my negatives to 6 choices but please do try. I think I know all of you.
To the rest of you, refer to the previous entry and please complete your analysis of me and let me know. I think it's about high time that you criticize me in 6 words or less online. Links are here again if you need it: Johari and Nohari.
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Tables Turned
Thursday, September 8, 2011
at
1:32 AM
After helping out a friend to select 5-6 words to best describe him, both positively and negatively, I thought this might be a good time for some role reversal. Many times in my entries or sometimes talking with others, I've been analyzing them on what makes them who they are in a nutshell. And of course there are times where I will do some extensive self-analysis but rarely do I hear much from other people analyzing me or at least such analyses were few and far in between for me to remember what were the results.
So here is your chance to critique me using a very little subset of descriptive words. Say what you really think of me (be truthful now) to my positives and what you also think of me negatively (seriously. Be truthful and don't hold back). If you think the words given do not reflect me, state it in a comment here. My only request is that when you write a name, please don't use "anonymous". That's just no fun.
So here we go:
Positives (known as the Johari window) here
Negatives (known as the Nohari window) here
I shall analyze the results and present what I think about it in 2 weeks time.
So here is your chance to critique me using a very little subset of descriptive words. Say what you really think of me (be truthful now) to my positives and what you also think of me negatively (seriously. Be truthful and don't hold back). If you think the words given do not reflect me, state it in a comment here. My only request is that when you write a name, please don't use "anonymous". That's just no fun.
So here we go:
Positives (known as the Johari window) here
Negatives (known as the Nohari window) here
I shall analyze the results and present what I think about it in 2 weeks time.
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Oversentience? Too Sentient?
Sunday, September 4, 2011
at
10:50 PM
The Carlton Community Cookbook launch a couple of days ago was good, featuring a number of recipes from people around the neighbourhood. Also a good time catching with people that I haven't seen in a long time. Of course there was food and I was fortunate enough to bring mine in as well. I think the most interesting comment about the cake I made came from a friend who said "I don't like green tea but shit...it didn't put up a fight against me". Classically funny stuff.
After the launch we went out for some drinks which then turned into bar crawling. It was all to do with the person who we had drinks with. It was also funny because during the whole bar crawling I didn't have enough cash on me and I was traveling with an expired debit card, so I can't withdraw money either. Fail. Met some interesting people along the way and it is probably the first time in a very long while that I've spoken to more Caucasians than I have fingers in one night. And then came the last stop (at least for some of us) which had a DJ going and virtually everyone is dancing. Friday retro night it seems. And the group I came with all started dancing and I've got no backup. I tried to stall the immense awkwardness by pushing for drinks at the bar but that was not to last. A Jager bomb later and I tried blending into the environment and frankly speaking I'd rather start a fight than do this. Thankfully, like any bar crawls, the stop at that place wasn't very long and soon a few of us went out for supper.
Refueling started a whole conversation on being self-aware in various situations. Naturally, it started I told them that I felt like this (Asian) elephant in the room at the last bar. They reassured me that no one really cares and I'm sure they are right but I'm just too aware of my lack of movement. Then it moved on to other things like saying stupid things to a person they like online, over the phone or even face-to-face. Some have stated that they have sent a message without really thinking about it and later finding themselves wondering why did I do that. I think it is safe to say that I haven't done anything stupid because again I am all too aware of the things that I am going to say and what might look like if I sent that rash message. It seems that I'm the only one who has the problem of not saying anything as compare to them being on the other end of the spectrum. I (over?)think and analyse things and often times the magic 8 ball in my head comes with "Can't decide. Ask again later". Aside from that, many other things came up on the table like MSG and creepy/weird pick-up tactics. All of which I would like to have nothing to do with.
This is the last time I'm ever going to a bar with dancing even if the DJ was awesome (which he mostly was).
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I am starting to dislike "grilling" or at least how we make it out to be now. There is no initial slack given to the persons in question. I don't know, it seems there's a lot of pressure from the get-go from a large number of friends (this is an important note: large numbers) because, you know, news travels really fast these days. And it is not a gradual sort of thing, it's just *pow* smacked with this giant wave of questions generated by pure excitement and I think has gone past the level of comfortable. And all in the name of we-really-want-to-know-the-details fun? It's like suddenly you are being "married" to this big group of friends. Except not really.
I was under the impression that it should be gradual, small groups and at least a couple of weeks into it. They've just taken that big jump and I'm pretty sure most of the time, they are still scared shitless about it or still suffering from the repercussions of it. The least we all can do about it is to give them a little breathing space and let things settle a bit. There is a point in time after which can be treated as public information and how we act about it will change appropriately. Even though status-wise, like a switch is either on or off, in reality I think for the people in question it rarely feels that way apart from an official question and answer. Cut them some slack please.
Perhaps I'm over-romanticizing this in the same way that I over-analyze things. Perhaps I'm a little bit old-fashioned. Perhaps it's just the very introverted me. Perhaps I'm just disappointed. One of the things that got me down the last time was peer pressure and certainly with the way things are now, it is only adding to that. Suddenly out of nowhere external expectation collides with them head on and though they say that it is no big deal but does it really not creep up on you in the long run? I have had the unfortunate incident of being labeled as a "bad" person just because I failed to meet the external expectations dictated by a collective. Don't tell me that doesn't affect you the slightest bit because it does on some level. To this day, I'm still haunted by this concept of the added external pressure that it paralyzes me. The pressure might be virtual in that it isn't actually there but like anyone who has a genuine phobia will tell you, even thinking about it scares them.
At the end of the day, it is really up to them. If they are fine with it, so be it. I'm just saying I don't think how we are approaching situations like these to be helpful or encouraging. You may or may not agree with what I say, it is just an opinion. An opinion that, I think, does not carry much weight. I'm just a lowly worm who eats coffee grounds and leftover food, pops up from the ground to say "O Hai!" and burrow back down, or get pecked by the birds of scrutiny. Feel free to discuss this further.
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I find it funny that people have more confidence in me than I do. Either they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about or I don't. It's funny either way.
-------------------
If there were such a thing as a past life, I would most definitely be a China factory worker. I would totally own my job.
After the launch we went out for some drinks which then turned into bar crawling. It was all to do with the person who we had drinks with. It was also funny because during the whole bar crawling I didn't have enough cash on me and I was traveling with an expired debit card, so I can't withdraw money either. Fail. Met some interesting people along the way and it is probably the first time in a very long while that I've spoken to more Caucasians than I have fingers in one night. And then came the last stop (at least for some of us) which had a DJ going and virtually everyone is dancing. Friday retro night it seems. And the group I came with all started dancing and I've got no backup. I tried to stall the immense awkwardness by pushing for drinks at the bar but that was not to last. A Jager bomb later and I tried blending into the environment and frankly speaking I'd rather start a fight than do this. Thankfully, like any bar crawls, the stop at that place wasn't very long and soon a few of us went out for supper.
Refueling started a whole conversation on being self-aware in various situations. Naturally, it started I told them that I felt like this (Asian) elephant in the room at the last bar. They reassured me that no one really cares and I'm sure they are right but I'm just too aware of my lack of movement. Then it moved on to other things like saying stupid things to a person they like online, over the phone or even face-to-face. Some have stated that they have sent a message without really thinking about it and later finding themselves wondering why did I do that. I think it is safe to say that I haven't done anything stupid because again I am all too aware of the things that I am going to say and what might look like if I sent that rash message. It seems that I'm the only one who has the problem of not saying anything as compare to them being on the other end of the spectrum. I (over?)think and analyse things and often times the magic 8 ball in my head comes with "Can't decide. Ask again later". Aside from that, many other things came up on the table like MSG and creepy/weird pick-up tactics. All of which I would like to have nothing to do with.
This is the last time I'm ever going to a bar with dancing even if the DJ was awesome (which he mostly was).
-----------------------
I am starting to dislike "grilling" or at least how we make it out to be now. There is no initial slack given to the persons in question. I don't know, it seems there's a lot of pressure from the get-go from a large number of friends (this is an important note: large numbers) because, you know, news travels really fast these days. And it is not a gradual sort of thing, it's just *pow* smacked with this giant wave of questions generated by pure excitement and I think has gone past the level of comfortable. And all in the name of we-really-want-to-know-the-details fun? It's like suddenly you are being "married" to this big group of friends. Except not really.
I was under the impression that it should be gradual, small groups and at least a couple of weeks into it. They've just taken that big jump and I'm pretty sure most of the time, they are still scared shitless about it or still suffering from the repercussions of it. The least we all can do about it is to give them a little breathing space and let things settle a bit. There is a point in time after which can be treated as public information and how we act about it will change appropriately. Even though status-wise, like a switch is either on or off, in reality I think for the people in question it rarely feels that way apart from an official question and answer. Cut them some slack please.
Perhaps I'm over-romanticizing this in the same way that I over-analyze things. Perhaps I'm a little bit old-fashioned. Perhaps it's just the very introverted me. Perhaps I'm just disappointed. One of the things that got me down the last time was peer pressure and certainly with the way things are now, it is only adding to that. Suddenly out of nowhere external expectation collides with them head on and though they say that it is no big deal but does it really not creep up on you in the long run? I have had the unfortunate incident of being labeled as a "bad" person just because I failed to meet the external expectations dictated by a collective. Don't tell me that doesn't affect you the slightest bit because it does on some level. To this day, I'm still haunted by this concept of the added external pressure that it paralyzes me. The pressure might be virtual in that it isn't actually there but like anyone who has a genuine phobia will tell you, even thinking about it scares them.
At the end of the day, it is really up to them. If they are fine with it, so be it. I'm just saying I don't think how we are approaching situations like these to be helpful or encouraging. You may or may not agree with what I say, it is just an opinion. An opinion that, I think, does not carry much weight. I'm just a lowly worm who eats coffee grounds and leftover food, pops up from the ground to say "O Hai!" and burrow back down, or get pecked by the birds of scrutiny. Feel free to discuss this further.
-------------------
I find it funny that people have more confidence in me than I do. Either they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about or I don't. It's funny either way.
-------------------
If there were such a thing as a past life, I would most definitely be a China factory worker. I would totally own my job.
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Kids Say The Darnest Things...Over and Over Again
Friday, September 2, 2011
at
11:50 AM
Was at a friend's housewarming party last week and our pastor's family came by as well. One of their daughters apparently is on a roll of riddles and jokes that are probably not really funny (even as far as lame) to us adults. Things like "What is the tallest building in the world? A library, because it has many storeys" and other such jokes were frequently dished out by this pint-sized daughter of theirs. We (the oddballs) cringed and all and even tried telling her to not be like us oddballs who revel in lameness etc. It was quite cute and funny actually.
The thing that caught me after that was the fact that these are the very same jokes that I grew up telling my parents, older ones and friends to. I used to go to bookstores and find the latest joke/riddle books and read them for long periods of time. Some even for hours when I got a little older. I remember thinking these are the funniest things in the world, how can anyone not laugh at such comical brilliance? I would go on and on to my parents and friends, telling them lame joke one after the other and I would laugh myself silly about it while my parents were, erm, less enthusiastic about it. But of course that never really bothered me. I just kept doing my thing.
Like all things, doing your thing will eventually be not your thing. We grow up, tastes change (certainly humour), so not surprisingly these lame jokes were a thing of the past. Which got me thinking, why is it that 5 year olds find this stuff so absolutely funny? Perhaps it is that now armed with a couple of years of solid language skills that they start to make the connection that some words have a double meaning or that some words sound like other words. That probably is a moment of epiphany and for some reason, celebrates this new found discovery with laughter. If that is the case, it is no wonder jokes like these stay on even to the next generation, because kids, regardless of times, love this stuff. While I'm sure parents will get to the point where they will get sick of some of these jokes, I suspect that it is important to humour them or at least acknowledge the jokes. It is at a period of time where kids learn and new connections are formed so it must be encouraged. Humour will follow them through the rest of their lives and it is important for them to learn that laughter pierces through age barriers and sometimes, transcends time. I wouldn't be surprised if kids two generations after me and beyond will use these same jokes.
How we developed humour through sarcasm, exaggeration, slapstick and sometimes crude forms from there becomes a little fuzzy to me. Of course there is some higher level cognition going than how we approach our first experience with humour, word play, that can only come as a result of ongoing maturity. Sarcasm requires context and at the very least recognize tonal changes in speech, exaggeration requires out-of-the-box imagination and the link between that to reality, slapstick requires a little indulgence to our sadistic self (no sane kid is really sadistic) and crude forms requires a certain level of angst coupled with a few other things. These forms of humour don't tend to repeat itself (not word for word exactly) as generations go by, only the principle of the humour remains true. All of which we can only get through taking a bit more salt in our growing minds. And this is where our individual personality takes over. Some hone their humour towards one area, others in different areas. But we will almost always have the ability to do one thing and that is humour through word play, it is the first encounter with non-physically induced laughter and like most firsts, we remember them the most.
Lolz.
-------------------------
So my current short-term plan dream job just popped up. Super long shot.
-------------------------
I might need to find another pool kaki soon. I'll put up a job description later on Seek.com.au.
The thing that caught me after that was the fact that these are the very same jokes that I grew up telling my parents, older ones and friends to. I used to go to bookstores and find the latest joke/riddle books and read them for long periods of time. Some even for hours when I got a little older. I remember thinking these are the funniest things in the world, how can anyone not laugh at such comical brilliance? I would go on and on to my parents and friends, telling them lame joke one after the other and I would laugh myself silly about it while my parents were, erm, less enthusiastic about it. But of course that never really bothered me. I just kept doing my thing.
Like all things, doing your thing will eventually be not your thing. We grow up, tastes change (certainly humour), so not surprisingly these lame jokes were a thing of the past. Which got me thinking, why is it that 5 year olds find this stuff so absolutely funny? Perhaps it is that now armed with a couple of years of solid language skills that they start to make the connection that some words have a double meaning or that some words sound like other words. That probably is a moment of epiphany and for some reason, celebrates this new found discovery with laughter. If that is the case, it is no wonder jokes like these stay on even to the next generation, because kids, regardless of times, love this stuff. While I'm sure parents will get to the point where they will get sick of some of these jokes, I suspect that it is important to humour them or at least acknowledge the jokes. It is at a period of time where kids learn and new connections are formed so it must be encouraged. Humour will follow them through the rest of their lives and it is important for them to learn that laughter pierces through age barriers and sometimes, transcends time. I wouldn't be surprised if kids two generations after me and beyond will use these same jokes.
How we developed humour through sarcasm, exaggeration, slapstick and sometimes crude forms from there becomes a little fuzzy to me. Of course there is some higher level cognition going than how we approach our first experience with humour, word play, that can only come as a result of ongoing maturity. Sarcasm requires context and at the very least recognize tonal changes in speech, exaggeration requires out-of-the-box imagination and the link between that to reality, slapstick requires a little indulgence to our sadistic self (no sane kid is really sadistic) and crude forms requires a certain level of angst coupled with a few other things. These forms of humour don't tend to repeat itself (not word for word exactly) as generations go by, only the principle of the humour remains true. All of which we can only get through taking a bit more salt in our growing minds. And this is where our individual personality takes over. Some hone their humour towards one area, others in different areas. But we will almost always have the ability to do one thing and that is humour through word play, it is the first encounter with non-physically induced laughter and like most firsts, we remember them the most.
Lolz.
-------------------------
So my current short-term plan dream job just popped up. Super long shot.
-------------------------
I might need to find another pool kaki soon. I'll put up a job description later on Seek.com.au.
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Tak Sopan Langsung
Thursday, August 25, 2011
at
12:32 AM
Remember the pain that I had to go through when getting the police check? If you haven't, then please read the entry before this to get the whole context thus far. It turns out that pain isn't done with me yet.
When I accepted the slot given to be by the seriously rude lady on the phone, I didn't realize that on that day there are no flights to Canberra such that I will reach there on time for the appointment. Since I was very apprehensive to call again to change the day to a day where there are flights, I decided to look for alternate means of transportation to the nation's capital. After awhile of looking, I found buses that goes there. Caveat: The only feasible bus leaves at 8 pm and arrives in Canberra at 4 am. And my appointment is at 9 am. Nonetheless I took the bus to go there. Knowing that there is going to be 5 hours of very free time, I pre-planned a route to bring a camera and try and shoot around at night until it is time for me to go for my appointment. Not expecting much since my camera isn't great at night plus I'm going to have to live with the noise. Because Canberra is rubbishly cold at night, there is no way I'm going to be sitting still doing nothing outside.
To maximize my energy intake, I had a very heavy and late lunch before going on the bus and hoping to catch some shut eye on the way there. It was a good thing that I did that because the only stop that was made on the way there was at a truck pit stop just past Albury. Had a sandwich and a chocolate milk and this was going to be the only thing I would have eaten for the next 21 hours. The bus was alright, fairly comfortable and they even screened a movie when we left Melbourne, Something's Gotta Give. But for most of the time on the bus I was just playing Words With Friends (side note: Optus has pretty good coverage for me to be able to do this. 3 and Vodaphone users, take note) and looking out of the window. It was a very clear night and for most of the time you would be able to look out and see thousands of stars and even make out the Milky Way. A bit later on, the moon had just risen and seeing this rather large looking half moon hovering just above the horizon was something.
When I set foot in Canberra began what was to be my rather epic "photo walk" for 5 hours. Armed with an iPod and my camera, I set forth to cover at least a half marathon's distance in that 5 hours. The streets were ghost town empty, large open spaces and a lot of parks. Lots of rabbits and kangaroos about as well near the War Memorial site which was rather strange. There was even one time where I was "attacked" by an angry bird. This bird circled around me squawking and even flew past my head just a couple of feet away. This bird practically followed me around for a good distance until I had crossed the road into a park. I think if I were there a bit longer that bird would start pecking my head.
And then the real pain starts. After 5 hours it was time for me to go for my appointment. My legs were super tired and starting to get sore so I was hoping that this police check thing would be over quickly. Went to the section where I was to send in my application and everything is so archaic. You take a number by taking coloured laminated cards from a tray when you walk in. The interior looks like it hasn't changed since Mahathir was in power. The only thing that I can see that was up-to-date were Tourism Malaysia posters on the twin towers and Cyberjaya. I even thought that the potted plant next to where I sat was older than me. This lady came out and started calling out numbers to get the applications for the police check and all I thought was "Oh no. Please don't tell me it is that lady." I was the fourth person called and when she asked for my documents (rather rudely of course) it turns out that I didn't have one of the documents. The documents that was stated in their site were largely inconsistent so I didn't know that I had to bring in this document which was the Australia Visa documentation. Since most Australia visas are electronic visas and attached to the passport, I thought that this wasn't going to be a problem but of course it had to be a problem. The lady said that without a physical copy of the documentation they cannot process the application. So now I am really stressed that I now need to find a place to print the documentation and God knows what other things that can go wrong.
The nearest place it turns out to be was the Australian National Library and that was a good 2+ km away. On my way to the High Commission I noticed quite a number of taxis around. But when I was in need of a fast transport to the library, no available taxi is in sight. So with my very sore legs, I brisk walked to the library. I've had so many frustrations just to get the documentation printed out in the library such as I need to have a library account with them and had some hoops to jumps through for me to do that, some of the computers there blocked GMail (wth?) and the set of computers that did work couldn't send the documents to the printer for printing. So much time lost and I wasn't even sure what sorts of surprises the High Commission are going to throw at me even when I am done. The librarian there was probably the most helpful person I've met today so I was very very grateful to him. After finally getting the things printed, again I couldn't find available taxis to get back to the High Commission as quickly as possible so I brisk walked back again. My left leg socket was starting to act up at this point which is a pretty bad sign.
Got back to the High Commission, a good 1+ hour since I was "ejected" from there, and I took a number. That number was the next number after mine which means that no one else had come for the police check since I've left and the people who were in front of me were still there. Very inefficient but that is probably good news that they are still going to entertain my application. Barely 5 minutes from arriving and getting my things sorted out, the lady saw that I came back and sounds almost frustrated that I didn't call her the minute I reached there and she sounded like she is making a very big deal out of this. At this point, the people who were in front of me went on to see the lady's boss while I sat on a chair near the lady's desk for her to sort my application stuff. In that time, her phone was ringing quite often and all of them were asking for an appointment to get the police check. How she answered them proved to me that she was that lady. I am staring at the face of evil, an evil so vile it makes your blood boil the second she utters a single word. After each call, she mumbles to herself mostly in frustration while I scan her desk to find a name for this person to remember.
Then I got into a glimpse of the "appointment management system". And true enough, it was this calendar log book filled with the names and contact numbers of those who were to come in for the police check. On each day, there were no more than 12-14 names on it and that was the definition of a full day. As I will soon discover, the way they do things around there, they could have served double the number of people and still have time for all the usual breaks and an afternoon nap. Everyone who placed an appointment for a particular day, there is only one appointment time, 9 am, regardless of whether there is no one or 10 people booked in for that day. I soon realize that you could just rock up to them without an appointment at any time they are open to submit the application and they would still accept it. They didn't check whether the person booked in for that day had arrived or rather, they didn't check that the person being served is booked in. This means that ALL of my transportation changes in the past that I had could have been avoided altogether, saving me a lot of money and hassle. I could just go there, pretending like I should be there and things would be fine. Simply and crudely put, they really didn't give a damn about appointments. Oh my blood boils.
Soon it was my turn to see the tiger lady's boss. She didn't say which room it was in. The first room with the door open I see this guy and I asked if this is where I was to go for the police check application. His first reply was "Do I look like a police officer to you?". Got stunned there for awhile because how do you reply to such questions. He did say that this was the right place and I now have a feeling that the following conversation is going to be more of an interrogation. What then happened was a series of questions that had absolutely nothing to do with what I thought a police check (or interrogation) would be like. It's almost like I was being questioned on my loyalty to the country disguised as "general knowledge" questions. Despite my really poor attempt (read: fail at Malaysian political scene) at answering the questions I was issued the certificate anyway. So confused. One more thing to do was to sign a declaration form which was handled by the tiger lady. The couple of people in front of me said that they were a bit afraid of her, out in the open that she could hear it. I think a bit was a severe understatement. So we all signed the forms and she said "You better make sure you sign and attach everything ah. You don't want to see me again or me to call you." I'm sure Death himself would sound less scary than her. And just like that, everything was done. From the time I came in (after I had all the documents) until the time I got out was no more than say 15 minutes. How on earth does 12-14 people in a day be a full day when each person takes less than 15 minutes each?
Took a cab back to the airport and I was pretty glad that I didn't take a cab when I really needed to. It is seriously expensive that it was as though the meter ticked every time I blinked. A 6.5 km journey with smooth traffic and little traffic lights costed me $21! I was nearly broke because of that. The cab driver was an interesting fellow. He was Bruneian and he has been in Australia for 37 years. Quite a nice fellow and even described that he once went to Penang from Singapore on a taxi back in the old days. This is only something I've seen in a P. Ramlee movie. But he asked a very confrontational question when he realized that I had been in Australia for 7 years which was "Why are you still holding on to your Malaysian citizenship?". I gave some lame excuse just to stop the conversation thread. I know my country has some pretty bad problems but I still don't think that it is grounds for giving it up. On that note the cab trip ended, on a weird stance. At this point I'm too tired to think about it. All I want is to collapse on my bed and sleep the rest of the day away.
Some pictures I took along my half marathon walk.
------------------------
Turns out that that was just a random stab in the dark. Secret's still safe. For now.
When I accepted the slot given to be by the seriously rude lady on the phone, I didn't realize that on that day there are no flights to Canberra such that I will reach there on time for the appointment. Since I was very apprehensive to call again to change the day to a day where there are flights, I decided to look for alternate means of transportation to the nation's capital. After awhile of looking, I found buses that goes there. Caveat: The only feasible bus leaves at 8 pm and arrives in Canberra at 4 am. And my appointment is at 9 am. Nonetheless I took the bus to go there. Knowing that there is going to be 5 hours of very free time, I pre-planned a route to bring a camera and try and shoot around at night until it is time for me to go for my appointment. Not expecting much since my camera isn't great at night plus I'm going to have to live with the noise. Because Canberra is rubbishly cold at night, there is no way I'm going to be sitting still doing nothing outside.
To maximize my energy intake, I had a very heavy and late lunch before going on the bus and hoping to catch some shut eye on the way there. It was a good thing that I did that because the only stop that was made on the way there was at a truck pit stop just past Albury. Had a sandwich and a chocolate milk and this was going to be the only thing I would have eaten for the next 21 hours. The bus was alright, fairly comfortable and they even screened a movie when we left Melbourne, Something's Gotta Give. But for most of the time on the bus I was just playing Words With Friends (side note: Optus has pretty good coverage for me to be able to do this. 3 and Vodaphone users, take note) and looking out of the window. It was a very clear night and for most of the time you would be able to look out and see thousands of stars and even make out the Milky Way. A bit later on, the moon had just risen and seeing this rather large looking half moon hovering just above the horizon was something.
When I set foot in Canberra began what was to be my rather epic "photo walk" for 5 hours. Armed with an iPod and my camera, I set forth to cover at least a half marathon's distance in that 5 hours. The streets were ghost town empty, large open spaces and a lot of parks. Lots of rabbits and kangaroos about as well near the War Memorial site which was rather strange. There was even one time where I was "attacked" by an angry bird. This bird circled around me squawking and even flew past my head just a couple of feet away. This bird practically followed me around for a good distance until I had crossed the road into a park. I think if I were there a bit longer that bird would start pecking my head.
And then the real pain starts. After 5 hours it was time for me to go for my appointment. My legs were super tired and starting to get sore so I was hoping that this police check thing would be over quickly. Went to the section where I was to send in my application and everything is so archaic. You take a number by taking coloured laminated cards from a tray when you walk in. The interior looks like it hasn't changed since Mahathir was in power. The only thing that I can see that was up-to-date were Tourism Malaysia posters on the twin towers and Cyberjaya. I even thought that the potted plant next to where I sat was older than me. This lady came out and started calling out numbers to get the applications for the police check and all I thought was "Oh no. Please don't tell me it is that lady." I was the fourth person called and when she asked for my documents (rather rudely of course) it turns out that I didn't have one of the documents. The documents that was stated in their site were largely inconsistent so I didn't know that I had to bring in this document which was the Australia Visa documentation. Since most Australia visas are electronic visas and attached to the passport, I thought that this wasn't going to be a problem but of course it had to be a problem. The lady said that without a physical copy of the documentation they cannot process the application. So now I am really stressed that I now need to find a place to print the documentation and God knows what other things that can go wrong.
The nearest place it turns out to be was the Australian National Library and that was a good 2+ km away. On my way to the High Commission I noticed quite a number of taxis around. But when I was in need of a fast transport to the library, no available taxi is in sight. So with my very sore legs, I brisk walked to the library. I've had so many frustrations just to get the documentation printed out in the library such as I need to have a library account with them and had some hoops to jumps through for me to do that, some of the computers there blocked GMail (wth?) and the set of computers that did work couldn't send the documents to the printer for printing. So much time lost and I wasn't even sure what sorts of surprises the High Commission are going to throw at me even when I am done. The librarian there was probably the most helpful person I've met today so I was very very grateful to him. After finally getting the things printed, again I couldn't find available taxis to get back to the High Commission as quickly as possible so I brisk walked back again. My left leg socket was starting to act up at this point which is a pretty bad sign.
Got back to the High Commission, a good 1+ hour since I was "ejected" from there, and I took a number. That number was the next number after mine which means that no one else had come for the police check since I've left and the people who were in front of me were still there. Very inefficient but that is probably good news that they are still going to entertain my application. Barely 5 minutes from arriving and getting my things sorted out, the lady saw that I came back and sounds almost frustrated that I didn't call her the minute I reached there and she sounded like she is making a very big deal out of this. At this point, the people who were in front of me went on to see the lady's boss while I sat on a chair near the lady's desk for her to sort my application stuff. In that time, her phone was ringing quite often and all of them were asking for an appointment to get the police check. How she answered them proved to me that she was that lady. I am staring at the face of evil, an evil so vile it makes your blood boil the second she utters a single word. After each call, she mumbles to herself mostly in frustration while I scan her desk to find a name for this person to remember.
Then I got into a glimpse of the "appointment management system". And true enough, it was this calendar log book filled with the names and contact numbers of those who were to come in for the police check. On each day, there were no more than 12-14 names on it and that was the definition of a full day. As I will soon discover, the way they do things around there, they could have served double the number of people and still have time for all the usual breaks and an afternoon nap. Everyone who placed an appointment for a particular day, there is only one appointment time, 9 am, regardless of whether there is no one or 10 people booked in for that day. I soon realize that you could just rock up to them without an appointment at any time they are open to submit the application and they would still accept it. They didn't check whether the person booked in for that day had arrived or rather, they didn't check that the person being served is booked in. This means that ALL of my transportation changes in the past that I had could have been avoided altogether, saving me a lot of money and hassle. I could just go there, pretending like I should be there and things would be fine. Simply and crudely put, they really didn't give a damn about appointments. Oh my blood boils.
Soon it was my turn to see the tiger lady's boss. She didn't say which room it was in. The first room with the door open I see this guy and I asked if this is where I was to go for the police check application. His first reply was "Do I look like a police officer to you?". Got stunned there for awhile because how do you reply to such questions. He did say that this was the right place and I now have a feeling that the following conversation is going to be more of an interrogation. What then happened was a series of questions that had absolutely nothing to do with what I thought a police check (or interrogation) would be like. It's almost like I was being questioned on my loyalty to the country disguised as "general knowledge" questions. Despite my really poor attempt (read: fail at Malaysian political scene) at answering the questions I was issued the certificate anyway. So confused. One more thing to do was to sign a declaration form which was handled by the tiger lady. The couple of people in front of me said that they were a bit afraid of her, out in the open that she could hear it. I think a bit was a severe understatement. So we all signed the forms and she said "You better make sure you sign and attach everything ah. You don't want to see me again or me to call you." I'm sure Death himself would sound less scary than her. And just like that, everything was done. From the time I came in (after I had all the documents) until the time I got out was no more than say 15 minutes. How on earth does 12-14 people in a day be a full day when each person takes less than 15 minutes each?
Took a cab back to the airport and I was pretty glad that I didn't take a cab when I really needed to. It is seriously expensive that it was as though the meter ticked every time I blinked. A 6.5 km journey with smooth traffic and little traffic lights costed me $21! I was nearly broke because of that. The cab driver was an interesting fellow. He was Bruneian and he has been in Australia for 37 years. Quite a nice fellow and even described that he once went to Penang from Singapore on a taxi back in the old days. This is only something I've seen in a P. Ramlee movie. But he asked a very confrontational question when he realized that I had been in Australia for 7 years which was "Why are you still holding on to your Malaysian citizenship?". I gave some lame excuse just to stop the conversation thread. I know my country has some pretty bad problems but I still don't think that it is grounds for giving it up. On that note the cab trip ended, on a weird stance. At this point I'm too tired to think about it. All I want is to collapse on my bed and sleep the rest of the day away.
Some pictures I took along my half marathon walk.
------------------------
Turns out that that was just a random stab in the dark. Secret's still safe. For now.
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Compounded Disasters
Friday, August 19, 2011
at
4:08 AM
Don't just hate it when you make a tiny tiny mistake in the beginning of the day and slowly that mistake causes some crazy domino effect as the day progresses? You know when the next mistake becomes bigger than the next? Yours truly was involved in such a day and all for a stupid piece of paper. Which I still didn't get.
Starts at 5 am and getting ready to head to the bus station to go to the airport. A couple of seconds out of the door and I realized that I forgot my passport. No biggie, just went back in and get it out. I was aiming to reach the station in time for the 6:10 bus. But thanks to my slight lapse of forgetfulness, I missed the 6:10 bus by 10 SECONDS! No matter, the next bus at 6:20 is the latest I can take and still make it to the airport on time but with little breathing space. Took the 6:20 bus and 10 minutes into the trip I realized that I don't recognize the roads anymore. Shrug it off that maybe they had a newer, more reliable route or that it was still dark and I actually am on the right road. At the 20 minute mark when we should have seen the airport at least, there was nothing but dark flat lands with many many roundabouts. At this point I started to get worried. We finally reached the airport at 7:05 but my flight was in 10 minutes. It was only then did the bus driver announced to all of us that he had taken a longer route because there was an accident on the usual route and traffic had been piling up. Wow. He could have told us earlier instead of having my heart racing for more than half the journey. Ran to the counter and asked if I could still go in (I had no luggage to check in so this shouldn't be too bad if they let me). They radioed the people at the gate and said that the gate had just closed and the plane left the gate. So close. So I had to go and change my flight which another $50 went out of my wallet.
Not to matter because the next flight out was in an hour and can technically still make it for my appointment at the Malaysian High Commission to get a police clearance certificate. Waited there until the appointed time when it was mentioned that the flight was delayed. Still alright although the absence of an aircraft at the gate was a bit sus. 20 minutes later, we got the shocking news...the flight was CANCELLED!!! They can reschedule all our flights to one that is in 2.5 hours from then or have it cancelled and get credit. I had mine rescheduled but I need to see if I can move my appointment to a later time that day but I had to wait for about half an hour because the High Commission hasn't opened yet.
Now the High Commission call was another thing altogether. At this point I was very very annoyed about everything that happened in the past 3 hours and I dreaded calling the High Commission to reschedule. A little context here: I called them a week ago to have my appointment to come and see them and I was put through to this lady who clearly would like to receive no calls at all if at all it were possible. And based on her response and what I can hear through the telephone, it seems that the appointment management system is very archaic, a book and a pencil. And she sounds very irritated at the very least. Every appointment time I suggested, she responds with a oh-no-you-didn't-sounding "NOOoooo" (And I can probably imagine her doing this, except a much older lady who doesn't care about anything than to get back home). After 3 times, only then did she suggest a time slot but not before hearing her flipping pages on a book. After taking my contact details, she ends the phone call abruptly with a very Napoleon Dynamite "K bai!" (Now that I think of it, I think she is like the Malaysian female version of Napoleon. That would explain a lot.). And that was the first call. The second call was to change to another day for convenience. She asked me why I wanted to change the appointment time of which I should have retorted it is none of her business. But, being the very passive me, I just said it was at a better time for me. She released a huge sigh and proceeded in the same way as the first phone call, with the oh-no-you-didn't routine.
So I called the High Commission praying very hard that I will get a different person on the other line, possibly someone nicer like the lady who transferred my call to this department. Alas, Murphy tapped on my shoulder and there she was on the other line. I recognized that absence of all things good in the world and lack of enthusiasm in her tone anywhere. So I told her my situation and asked if it were possible to shift the appointment to later during the day because I can still make it with the rescheduled flight. Again, she gave the oh-no-you-didn't "No." and said something that I can't remember exactly but had something to do with it being the month of Ramadhan. Really?? The new time was to be just after noon and your reason for declining my suggestion is it is because it is Ramadhan?? You could have just said that the day is full and I would have been fine with that. At this point she said that there will only be available time slots in a month's time when Ramadhan is over. My blood was about to erupt from my skin until I hear pages flipping again and said that she can put me in next week Tuesday. What the hell was all of that talk about? (If it weren't for the fact that I am utterly incapable of dropping F-bombs, I would have dropped it there) So I took the slot, she took down my details and ended the conversation with the same "K bai!".
This made me so furious I had to take some time to calm down before I lash it on the next person who was to be the airline staff that is going to cancel my flight and issue me credit. And she was sick so I don't think she needs any more rubbish from people and certainly not from me. She was nice and had her work cut out from all the reissuing of boarding passes so I kept apologizing profusely for the trouble caused. She just reissued my boarding pass and changed my flight on the return flight and now she has to cancel all of that and reissue me credit. I felt seriously bad about it. My breakfast at the airport was sponsored by the airlines and headed back to the city on a very very gloomy day. And not even half the day has passed.
Thankfully that was the last of the frustrations for the day. Met up with a friend, accompanied my friend to run some errands which ended really smoothly, had awesome mini cupcakes and a really good pot of chamomile tea, awesome cheap sushi with white miso soup, a stroll around Costco and later a movie. I think my body couldn't keep up with the rubbish I had today that I crashed soon after for 12 hours at least.
Let's just hope that this day will not repeat itself when I go back there the next week to get that police clearance again. I don't think I can take another day of this again.
Starts at 5 am and getting ready to head to the bus station to go to the airport. A couple of seconds out of the door and I realized that I forgot my passport. No biggie, just went back in and get it out. I was aiming to reach the station in time for the 6:10 bus. But thanks to my slight lapse of forgetfulness, I missed the 6:10 bus by 10 SECONDS! No matter, the next bus at 6:20 is the latest I can take and still make it to the airport on time but with little breathing space. Took the 6:20 bus and 10 minutes into the trip I realized that I don't recognize the roads anymore. Shrug it off that maybe they had a newer, more reliable route or that it was still dark and I actually am on the right road. At the 20 minute mark when we should have seen the airport at least, there was nothing but dark flat lands with many many roundabouts. At this point I started to get worried. We finally reached the airport at 7:05 but my flight was in 10 minutes. It was only then did the bus driver announced to all of us that he had taken a longer route because there was an accident on the usual route and traffic had been piling up. Wow. He could have told us earlier instead of having my heart racing for more than half the journey. Ran to the counter and asked if I could still go in (I had no luggage to check in so this shouldn't be too bad if they let me). They radioed the people at the gate and said that the gate had just closed and the plane left the gate. So close. So I had to go and change my flight which another $50 went out of my wallet.
Not to matter because the next flight out was in an hour and can technically still make it for my appointment at the Malaysian High Commission to get a police clearance certificate. Waited there until the appointed time when it was mentioned that the flight was delayed. Still alright although the absence of an aircraft at the gate was a bit sus. 20 minutes later, we got the shocking news...the flight was CANCELLED!!! They can reschedule all our flights to one that is in 2.5 hours from then or have it cancelled and get credit. I had mine rescheduled but I need to see if I can move my appointment to a later time that day but I had to wait for about half an hour because the High Commission hasn't opened yet.
Now the High Commission call was another thing altogether. At this point I was very very annoyed about everything that happened in the past 3 hours and I dreaded calling the High Commission to reschedule. A little context here: I called them a week ago to have my appointment to come and see them and I was put through to this lady who clearly would like to receive no calls at all if at all it were possible. And based on her response and what I can hear through the telephone, it seems that the appointment management system is very archaic, a book and a pencil. And she sounds very irritated at the very least. Every appointment time I suggested, she responds with a oh-no-you-didn't-sounding "NOOoooo" (And I can probably imagine her doing this, except a much older lady who doesn't care about anything than to get back home). After 3 times, only then did she suggest a time slot but not before hearing her flipping pages on a book. After taking my contact details, she ends the phone call abruptly with a very Napoleon Dynamite "K bai!" (Now that I think of it, I think she is like the Malaysian female version of Napoleon. That would explain a lot.). And that was the first call. The second call was to change to another day for convenience. She asked me why I wanted to change the appointment time of which I should have retorted it is none of her business. But, being the very passive me, I just said it was at a better time for me. She released a huge sigh and proceeded in the same way as the first phone call, with the oh-no-you-didn't routine.
So I called the High Commission praying very hard that I will get a different person on the other line, possibly someone nicer like the lady who transferred my call to this department. Alas, Murphy tapped on my shoulder and there she was on the other line. I recognized that absence of all things good in the world and lack of enthusiasm in her tone anywhere. So I told her my situation and asked if it were possible to shift the appointment to later during the day because I can still make it with the rescheduled flight. Again, she gave the oh-no-you-didn't "No." and said something that I can't remember exactly but had something to do with it being the month of Ramadhan. Really?? The new time was to be just after noon and your reason for declining my suggestion is it is because it is Ramadhan?? You could have just said that the day is full and I would have been fine with that. At this point she said that there will only be available time slots in a month's time when Ramadhan is over. My blood was about to erupt from my skin until I hear pages flipping again and said that she can put me in next week Tuesday. What the hell was all of that talk about? (If it weren't for the fact that I am utterly incapable of dropping F-bombs, I would have dropped it there) So I took the slot, she took down my details and ended the conversation with the same "K bai!".
This made me so furious I had to take some time to calm down before I lash it on the next person who was to be the airline staff that is going to cancel my flight and issue me credit. And she was sick so I don't think she needs any more rubbish from people and certainly not from me. She was nice and had her work cut out from all the reissuing of boarding passes so I kept apologizing profusely for the trouble caused. She just reissued my boarding pass and changed my flight on the return flight and now she has to cancel all of that and reissue me credit. I felt seriously bad about it. My breakfast at the airport was sponsored by the airlines and headed back to the city on a very very gloomy day. And not even half the day has passed.
Thankfully that was the last of the frustrations for the day. Met up with a friend, accompanied my friend to run some errands which ended really smoothly, had awesome mini cupcakes and a really good pot of chamomile tea, awesome cheap sushi with white miso soup, a stroll around Costco and later a movie. I think my body couldn't keep up with the rubbish I had today that I crashed soon after for 12 hours at least.
Let's just hope that this day will not repeat itself when I go back there the next week to get that police clearance again. I don't think I can take another day of this again.
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