Urbanites turned Farmers

Hi Folks! Missed us? Nah...didn't think so...hahaha...probably none of u even think we were gone...albeit only for one nite...but still...

We finally went up the the PIL's farmhouse in York (97kms outside of Perth Metro) on Saturday for an overnite stay... "long-awaited" in my PIL's view...but not for me...:P

"Are we there yet?"

I will admit right away that i wasn't so enthusiastic abt going...but yes, we HAVE to go some day...so why not now?I was really going to try to enjoy myself...i swear!

It's a beautiful place, granted...fruit orchards at the back and fields of wildflowers everywhere...but i cldn't possibly stay for more than one nite...for many reasons that shall not be mentioned here...let me just say, it's not simply becoz i am being a prima-donna when it comes to holiday accommodation...

Some of the activities that the urban farmer couldn't resist....

"I'm a lean, mean, grass-cutting machine!"

"A farmer believes in self-sustenance"

" Breath-taking sunset....A lovely end to an excellent day "

The happiest camper the entire time was probably Shiro...running happily (read: madly) amongst the tall grasses and wildflower fields...chasing bugs and sniffing at grass-seeds...

This was him at the end of the nite.....

The poor dog simply couldn't move...no matter how much u prodded or called out to him...

" Missing York already... "

Really thanks but no thanks...next time Mere can take Shiro up there alone...I think I am comfortable remaining an urbanite.....

Culinary Adventures

Not sure why...but I have had some "adventures" with seafood lately...

Just today...I was having some leftover chilli mussels from last nite...and I found a half-digested baby crab in one of them...I only made that discovery when the crunch between my teeth happened and i tasted roe....Nice!

Usually if this happens...i would shrug it off...possibly even thank my lucky stars that i got some yummy crab roe thrown in...(this is someone that happens to like chewing on cooked prawn heads for their cholesterol-laden brains and little black beady eyes that go 'pop' when u bite into them...)

After my incident with the baby crab...i kinda didn't feel like having the rest of my mussels...dunno....really feel like vomiting...

it does take A LOT to make food repulsive for me...i mean...i can honestly eat anything...(expect for bugs and creatures that you don't find in a supermarket)...

i will eat innards...i will eat fish eyes...i will crack the fish's skull to suck at their brains...so why the sudden repulsion...i actually dunno....maybe i am getting old?..

tell u guys something esle...something gross...

last week, my FIL saw this frozen conch for sale at the chinese shops...he said he wanted to try it...I didn't think it was going to be good coz i have always used the dried variety for soup...the dried version is tasty (tastes like abalone, serious!...) but I dun think the frozen one was going to be tasty at all...plus he wanted it stir-fried...i honestly never heard of anyone using the conch for dishes except soup...

Mere agreed that stir frying wasn't going to soften the conch at all...so he decided to steam it for dinner...with the usual...ginger, garlic, spring onion and sauce...the conch did soften...but it was completely tasteless, save for the taste of the condiments...so, in our opinion...the frozen conch sucked!...

coz the frozen conch was pretty large...we kept half for for ourselves for the following nite's dinner...now..not sure if u know what a conch is...it is essentially a large sea snail....shell-less...so perhaps more like a slug?! anyway...the portion that got kept, was the part where the 2 knobby long bits were..u know, like "feelers"...

I really dunno what happened...but i got seriously grossed out while preparing it for dinner...i was slicing it...and i kept thinking it is a damn SNAIL...i was really close to tossing it away...i was so scared!!!! see, you got to understand, i once freaked out and chucked a whole chinese cabbage away coz there were tiny neon-green caterpillars in it...yes, i cld have simply rinsed them off...but i was terrified...so when i was faced with this snail/slug...all i cld think off was chucking it away...but i knew i shldn't coz it was like nearly $20 a kilo lah!

So i pep-talked myself...it's dead...it's not a snail snail...it's like abalone...etc...i was nearly done with the slicing...when i realised the damn thing had intestines!!

my god...i wanted to die...i had to pull them out and rised the slices to make sure that there were not remnants of the snail's crap (literally!)...how gross is that..snail's intestines! i mean pls...it's almost like chicken intestines can?..but it's not chicken...its a bloody snail!

i must stress, i have cleaned out chickens and fishes before...blood and guts dun faze me...but snail's innards?!!?!...errghh...thinking abt now just makes my hair stand....

i honestly am off seafood i think...but how? We might be going to the Oyster Bar for our anniversary...Oh, haha...that reminds of a worm-in-my-oyster story...but i'll save that for next time...

Foodies

I know at this point in time I shouldn't even think of "celebrating"...but it's the weekend...and we have nothing better to do...so we went to EAT loh...our "dates" have always revolved around going to a restaurant anyway...

Mere kindly reassured me that tho i have joined the ranks of the unemployed (for the time being), he can still afford to feed my face...reeaaaallllll nice issit he?

Mere picked this place that he had no idea where it was except that it was around the Fremantel area...yup, no idea...we only decided to go there after we hopped into the car, so yes we could have checked the web...but we don't usually lug our laptops around like some pple i know...

Thankfully Mere had the common sense to heard towards the river and just drive along that stretch...found it pretty quickly...pretty quirky place...next to the river bank and near a flyover too...so when the band plays..the sounds reverberating off the concrete kinda gives the whole area a pretty cool vibe...

Apparently The Left Bank is pretty popular...but as I was not a born and bred Perthsian...i had no clue about this place at all...the only Left Bank i know is in France...

Like any Freo restaurant...seafood is the predominant item on the menu...everything was pretty pricy and honestly, seafood doesn't interest me much...especially "normal" stuff like fish and chips....

Knowing Mere, I knew that we will be ordering the tasting plate...and coz I knew the servings were going to be pretty small, I ordered a oyster and seafood chowder to share...

Verdict? I was right about the food portions...don't get me started on food portions...having been here for so long...I have grown to expect large servings on even larger plates...if I can finish the food..it's not generous enough!!..yeah, its the fatty talking...but really, why is it that prices have increased so much over the last few years, but our plate sizes have shrunk?? Don't give me the crap about healthy eating ok...if i want to eat healthy, i can make my own salad at home...

The chowder was ok...but not enough stock...it's like the chowder was watered down and then liberally salted...yes, there were quite a bit of seafood pieces in there...but the taste was really just so-so...

Thank goodness for the company tho :) Great company makes even the crappiest food taste like heaven...

Altho the experience wasn't as great as I expected...I will go back again...I believe in second chances...who knows, maybe the cook was off sick that day? Maybe the ingredients were not as good that day?...or simply, I think I might order the lamb shanks next time...hahaha...and I shall remember to leave some space for dessert too...

I shall leave you with a pretty picture of us foodies...

Yeah Yeah...I am fat becoz I love food...tell me something new ok?...

Life as I see it right now...

It's been, what, 2.5 days since I left that place...how am I feeling?...haha...pretty relaxed and happy actually...

I get up at whatever time I like...without my usual panic of how much time I have left to slap on moisturiser and make-up, thinking if I still have time to put on mascara without poking my eye out...running to start the car up...deciding which pair of black shoes to wear...

I've been very good...no TV at all during the day...so, no Cath, I haven't been watching Oprah & Dr. Phil..hahha...I didn't even touch my DVDs...

Afternoons are spent having a quick lunch at home or out at the shops...ducking into the supermarkets for a few grocery items or even at the cafe having an ice-coffee and strawberry shortcake...mmmmm....nice as it may sound...but I do find sitting somewhere with a magazine pretty boring...i'll rather lie on my bed to read to be honest! So, i'll usually be back home in less than 2 hrs...

While at home, i'm parked in front of the comp for a good portion of my mornings and afternoons....the job hunt has been pretty ok so far...nothing exciting...but yes, there are stuff are there for me... but i think i must have hit the download quota...the connection is so slow...i am growing old just waiting for the page to load....damn optus!

it's nearly 5pm now...time to do another of my most favourite thing in the world...i think i haven cooked dinner in months... now that i am home...i can be bothered to make yummy stuff for dinner!! So happy just writing about it...

On tonite's menu is Emperor Chicken and a simple dish of stir-fried garlic chives and chicken gizzards...ok..enuf of me rambling on...need to go steam the chicken liao...

Tata ~

Don't bother polling...

Firstly thank you for all you "helpful" people who did cast your vote...i'm sure striking lottery is really an OPTION...that choice was simply put in to see which of you are seriously out there to help me...tsk tsk tsk...turns out there was none...

Anyway, the main reason why there is no need for the poll anymore is that I have taken the decision to quit. Things were actually sorta looking up and so....yes, it's pretty sudden...even for me...

My company (ex-company, rather) hired a HR professional months ago...her task was to speak to each and every employee on what their job role was...only a couple of weeks ago, she finally got to our department...honestly I really dunno what is the point of hiring someone to draw up your job scope...considering, aren't you already hired? if your bosses dunno what the hell you r doing...ain't something seriously wrong?

I didn't know exactly what to tell her...as in, should I hard-sell myself or not...coz I don't even know what the objective is...how to play the game? anyway...it was pretty antagonising...but after 2 super long discussions..she finally came up with my role description...very detailed...right down to the nuts and bolts of what I do on a daily basis....

Now, this role description, to my understanding...was only a "draft"...it will be sent thru to Management (ie: Towkay, Towkay Neo & Jing Li) to get approval..meaning i assumed that they will have another discussion with ME..to see if both Management and I agree that these are my responsibilities etc...I mean, you don't need me to tell you that this is the appropriate way to handle this kind of matter right?

At the same time..my Jing Li wrote me a role description as well...based on how he thought my role should be like...we agreed to have a discussion this week to talk about it...

But...my role description written by the HR professional turned up on seek.com...tho the company name was not mentioned...how i know it was for my job?...well, firstly, the agent was the same one that got me this fucked-up job...and she was so lazy that the ad was word for word as what the HR professional wrote...save for some stupid typos and the fact the ad was to advertise for someone with 3 times my work experience...

how fucking under-hand and unprofessional...seriously why did I waste my time with them at all?!

Maybe they are trying to hire a more experienced person to help me...maybe I'm mistaken, the ad was not put up by my company at all...maybe maybe maybe...i have discussed the possibilities with Mere...the bottom-line is they are still unprofessional and why should I work for this type of people anymore? Besides...i am not quitting just for one stupid ad...the ad was simply the last straw...

For some reason...when I get pretty worked up...my mind tends to express everything in chinese or cantonese...as in...i dunno why..english words can't seem to give me the exact description of how i feel and what i would like to do to people who annoy me...don't worry...no hokkien vulgarities involved...don't see how someone esle's maternal genetials come into play on how i feel....

hence...i am sometimes lost for words on how to express myself in formal writing...i can't exactly use the words "stay in your stupid company any longer my life will be shorter leh" in my resignation letter right?...

So Mere kindly offered to draft it out for me...I didn't use his in the end..coz in summary, his was really pretty harsh...and, it's basically not me...so we compromised...and this what i submitted this morning:

honestly waaaayyyyyy milder than what Mere would prefer...like what Dana told me..."don't burn you bridges"...but hey, no bridges there..and also..this mild version probably got my towkay steaming from his ears already...(which btw, I'm told...he hasn't spoken a word since I left...ha!)

Before I submitted my resignation this morning...I cleared up my desk and threw away all drafts, files and paperwork that I was working on...it's MY work...they didn't like it...so everything into the bin...I also deleted all my digital files...of course, I know IT can possibly salvage them from the depths of the server...but i renamed them all to either "draft", "draft1" or "text" or something really "useful"...if they want to spend time opening all the files before salvaging...be my guest :)

In a word of fairness to my jing li and towkay...i honestly don't think they knew about the ad at all...i confronted my towkay this morning when i gave him my letter...he was really lost for words...asked me to wait for the Towkay Neo to come back...no fucking way! I'm outta there...why should I wait...wait to be told that yes, they are replacing me becoz they thought i was crap?

I know deep down my towkay knows that the towkay neo did it...not the first time btw...i was the one who did the previous round of ads...we advertised even before the person was told to leave...and yes, that person found the ad..and sent a stinker of an email to everyone in the office..."watch out, you could be next" was the warning...ha!...just didn't expect that it would be me...

i left not sobbing but with my pride intact...as far as i'm concerned...i know i am not at fault and if the other staff members hear of this...Managment will be blamed and seen as despicable...i probably did hit the nail on the head with my letter as well...if not, my towkay whom is a really nice, gentle, kind person...won't be still red in the face and steaming at his ears...

My Jing Li did call earlier to let me know he thinks that i was very unfairly treated and that the towkay and himself are trying to find out exactly what happened...i said my peice...i don't feel the least bit upset...

How I am feeling now?...just a little bit du lan..and wish that I will find out if the Towkay Neo will get told off by the Towkay...hmmm...i will check into that...but as of 3pm this afternoon....i know the Towkay Neo still hasn't stepped into the office...so we shall see...

My plans for the next few days is to chill out a little...and continue with the job hunt of course...

who knows...i might come back to singapore for a while...just had a look at my bank account..had more money than i remembered...luckily...