All in One Day

It's Tuesday.

I woke up quite late again, about 8pm and did my morning 'rolling and cuddling' in bed before getting up. I has been lazy these few days, or maybe it has been few weeks? I don't know.

We just did white water rafting on Sunday and it was absolutely fun, I really want to go again, perhaps on stronger current? Anyway, I'm going for skydiving this Saturday and kayaking this Sunday. Skydiving is thrilling and kayaking will be fun for sure. There will also be Festival Indonesia this weekend, which my housemate wants to go to if we finish kayaking early.

I have put my leave application for this Saturday since almost two months ago and it hasn't been approved. It's partly my fault and partly my manager's fault for that. It's my fault for not checking whether my leave has been approved or not. Last time I put my application, I just mention my leave to my manager and he just said yes and asked me to fill up a form, in which I left near the printing machine. It's partly my manager's fault because he didn't say anything about it to me, but he said no to my second in charge. I think he thought that the second in charge will tell me about it, which he didn't, of course. So it's just messing up with out own 'assumptions'.

When I found out that my leave was rejected, I was quite surprised and freaked out as it was 2 weeks before the skydive. I already planned to take sick leave the whole weekend, which occupied a lot of my time. Suddenly my manager called me this afternoon and said that he's trying his best to give me a day off on Saturday. Well, I have been helping him quite a lot, like coming for extra shifts when someone's taking sick leave and staying back for few hours many times. Maybe that's why I was quite pissed when he did not approve my leave. He'll let me know how it goes by tonight, I hope he'll get someone to replace me this Saturday so I don't have to lie about being sick.

That's one weight off me.

When we did rafting, I was the one who made the booking and arranging the car rental. It was quote hard since not everybody is using Facebook regularly and I didn't foresee that. That resulted in few miscommunications and some information did not reach some people. And I was thinking about the skydive and tests as well, so it was a no wonder if I was full of emotion last week. But I still felt really bad being all nasty like that, even I think I was so harsh when making jokes.

Anyway, I learnt a lot of things from that. I called up the car rental company to make sure no extra deductions were made to me. Luckily I paid for insurance and some new scratches that I was not aware of were covered by the insurance. Then I asked my friends who paid for petrol. I just did all calculations for all payments that should go to me, it was good that two of my friends were so quick in responding and they quickly letting me know about deductions from other costs and transferred me the rest of money they owed me. Yeah, I made it easy, all money owed goes to me, I worked out deductions and stuff so people just need to transfer to one person.

That's rafting thingy done, moving to skydive.
I reconfirmed about the booking, what time we need to arrive, and check if we're getting any photos taken by them or not. Then I quickly inform my friends. I haven't arrange how we will meet up yet, I need to do the research tonight I guess. I also need to forward the booking details.

That's not bad at all, eh?
Moving to good news, suddenly the head office called me up and said that I can transfer store to Chadstone, which is close by. I need to walk to station (8 minutes), take the train (10-15 minutes), then take bus (10 minutes). Let's just say that it will take about 30 minutes to get there compared to more than an hour to get to the store I'm working at the moment. I will go to see the assistant store manager tomorrow to discuss my shift, no need for complicated interview as I am fully qualified in bakery department. They want me to work on Sundays, I really hope they can give me a Saturday off since my friends are working and I can only go out with them on weekends most of the time.

There are still many things happened, maybe I'll just make another post as this one's already pretty long? Nah, I'll continue!

I accompanied my friend to see a lecturer who deals with French study abroad. She wants to take summer in French so she can graduate early next year. Fortunately she can! And guess what, even though I will have finished my degree, I can go as well! That's a big 'WOW' from just a question coming out of curiosity. I think I'll ask my parents tonight on what they think of it. Perhaps I can spend another Birthday and New Year in France again?

Would be such a delight! Many good things happened and many tasks completed, All in One Day.

Ready, Set, Spring!

1st Sept 2011.

Today's the mark of beginning of Spring 2011!
While I'm browsing twitter and Facebook quite late in the morning, I realised that this September many people have many things going on. Good on us! Looks like spring really bring positive energy after all!

Like other festive feeling of welcoming something new, I start this spring by cleaning up my room (again). But it's a little bit different, since I'm welcoming one tiny piece of furniture to my room. ^^

It's a bed-side table! Yep, I just got a nice one for $15 not including delivery. It's a wooden wide one, not a bad price in my opinion. I've been using a storage box from IKEA as bed-side table for slightly more than half a year. Luckily it's a good looking storage box, so it's not that bad.

Now my room is becoming more spacious, cleaner, and I'm going to make it tidier. I hope with the existence of this bedside table, it won't be as messy as before when I do my reading before sleep.

I think I'll do a little bit washing as well, and a bit of cooking, and..... ironing! Tomorrow's I'll be working for 8 hours 2 days straight, gonna be tiring.

And this weekend is White Water Rafting!
Here comes my adventurous spring!

Embracing Spring

After embracing winter from few months ago, we're embracing spring now, well in two days to be exact.

I just realised that my last post was on the independence day of indonesia, and now my post is on idul fitri, talk about Indonesian big days!

Anyway, last week was as warm as middle of spring but this week it's becoming cooler, but it still feels like spring!

Starting last Sunday, I've started my Spring adventures.
Yup, there are so many things I'm doing this spring, rock climbing, white water rafting, sky diving, kayaking....
Gonna be exciting for sure!

And I haven't mention other stuffs as well!

I wish that this spring will be a great season for me!

Job-hunting, Aug 2011

This week was full on job hunting, resume checking, and creating cover letters.

I know it sounds too soon for me, who'll complete in November, to look for a job in August.
But we need to keep in mind that I'm actually already LATE at job-hunting, I should have gone for interviews for graduate position if I've applied for graduate positions which most of them closed last month.

I just realised that we've got different culture here compared to in Indonesia.
Most of people in Indonesia will wait for graduation before trying to look for job.
I can be done here, I'm not saying it's wrong, but apparently these Aussies are much smarter and ahead than us.
Most students here, especially for those high-achievers, has already secured a job in a 2-year contract in graduate program in leading companies.

This is the time for me to regret why I didn't study harder and score high marks across my subjects in uni.
But let me see the bright side, I got the chance to learn French, which will be impossible if I graduate sooner as I would choose to learn Germany. I met many new friends, good ones. And I'm still in Australia, enjoying every second here.
Things has not been very friendly to me though, but somehow this semester I managed to see things positively and acted positively too.

Back to topic.
Yes, I was rushing a job application that I really want, but I only managed to get my documents to be checked once.
I was late on Monday and it was already full on Wednesday (today).
I think my documents are good, but I'm sure there are rooms for improvements.
I just hope that those bunch of people who wanted to get their documents checked do not apply for the same job that I do, lol.
But overall, I think I'm qualified for the job, just wishing that no one has better resume than me.
Nevertheless, it will be a good practice for me to make resume and cover letter.

If this fails, I'll still stay positive and try looking again, my deadline's November so I need to rush things a bit.

Monash Association of Debaters (MAD)

How long has it been since my last post?
I know I'm lazy, I'm trying to post regularly but procrastination is still my biggest issue, lol.

This is week 3, not like I have anymore class this week since my classes are on Mondays to Wednesdays.
Not many assignments coming up yet. Well, not like I have many assignments anyway since I'm doing only 1 subject, duh.

So I kept on wondering these few weeks, what should I do to fill up my free time?
At first I thought of working, but not really possible since they only need me on weekends at the moment.
I don't really like weekends shift as it's the time I hang around with my friends who are working.

So I thought to myself, let's enjoy uni life, clubs!
I joined French Society since last semester, but they haven't done anything these few weeks.
I emailed Japanese club, but they didn't reply me yet.
I emailed MAD (see title) and they replied in few hours! The reply was very encouraging and I know that MAD is an active club and has been winning many competitions.

That's how I joined them on Monday, their weekly meeting was at 5pm.
I was quite surprised to see one small lecture hall used for this club at first.
There are so many students involved in this club, soon I found out that most of them are Law students which explained why they got the whole law building for them.

I was clueless when I entered the hall, there are some people in front and one lady was shouting about "sign-up", so off I go to see her and expressed my interest. Sure thing she immediately type in her laptop my full name.

"Hmm, funny." I thought, "Shouldn't they give me a form, ask my student ID, and check if I'm a MSA member?"

*MSA member: Monash Student Association, you need to pay about $60 per year and you'll get several benefit on stores and clubs in Monash Clayton Campus.

After she jotted down my name, I realised that she is taking the names for who want to join the DEBATE that night!
"S**T!!!!" came through my mind without spoken, "What have I done?!?! Should I take my name off ASAP????"

But then I taught myself, "Why did I join this club for? I want confidence and public-speaking skill."
That's why even though I'm clueless about debate I still left my name written in the role.

At first I sat by myself until they called my team mate, who is having his second debate but first BP style debate.
Well, at least he can teach me how this debate will go.
But the preparation time was only 15 minutes, and it wasn't even enough for us to brain storm, nonetheless to teach me how it goes.

And there I went for my first debate ever, me being second opposition with the topic: "This house will ban offensive music." (Wordings changed, of course they use much more elegant sentences)
Everyone was really good, there are three people before me and I was the last speaker.
When I went to the front for my speech, my mind went blank, I was nervous and panicking!
The room ended up being in perfect silence thanks to me.
After I started my first sentence, eveything went quite well, I was pretty surprised at myself as well.
We didn't win the debate though, I took to many POI (Point Of Information) which I didn't know that we should only take 4 max and me taking all of those, haha....

After first debate, we had pizza for dinner, and of course the club's paying for it, which is really nice! I'll be having pizza every Monday!

Second debate didn't go really well for my team, but I was more fluent than the first one.
We finished at 10pm and luckily my team mate is kind enough to drive me back home, rather than me taking bus and walk 15 minutes since my usual last bus is at 9pm.

I was so happy and proud of myself when every one, especially seniors said that it didn't look like it was my first time doing it even if it's totally true!

This is MAD's website, we can browse many things related to debating:
http://www.monashdebaters.com/

New Semester, Last Semester

Here goes the new semester.
It has finally started, my final semester of bachelor degree.

Before talking about my first week in uni, I would like to talk about my last week before starting uni.
I finished my holiday with weekend packed with schedule and happiness.

As usual, I'm working on Friday 6AM-11AM.
At first I was about to eat batagor with my housemate but turned out that she overslept, haha.
When I came back home, we decided to have lunch at a quite new Indonesian restaurant at a suburb close by.
After lunch, we went around for a bit of grocery shopping.

Saturday was quite a long day of work from 6AM to 3PM.
It was quite hectic as we had one less people working because of lack of communication, duh.
But overall it was quite okay, I got to give tastings to customers and it was really fun.
After work, we got to eat batagor, haha.
Then we went back home and I start cooking for dinner.
We had 3 course dinner with drink.
Appetiser was Japanese inspired cold salad, it was boiled potatoes and carrots with tomatoes dressed with Japanese Mayonaise.
Main was kinda a menu I invented, a korean style dish, which is bacon bulgogi with melted cheese.
As for dessert, just a simple chocolate brownies with ice cream.
And don't forget the drink, an orange squash with kiwis and strawberries.
I was happy with everything, we finished all the food and drinks and chat and watched movies.

On Sunday, we went to Miss Marple at Sassafras.
It was my first time there, and I love it! The restaurant, the suburb, the shops, they're just.... I don't know, can't help but loving it!

Moving on for my uni.
I have classes on Monday to Wednesday. With Fridays and Saturdays work, I have Thursdays and Sundays off.
It was actually really good, grammar seminar and grammar workshop on Monday, it was quite normal.
Tuesday, cultural lecture, it was quite interesting as we learnt about Global Economic Crisis in Europe. It was like learning many things in just one lecture, history, politics, economics, and finance.
Tomorrow I'll have tutorial, hope I'll get a nice tutor.

Aw, I think I strayed a bit from the title but I just can't be too bothered with that.
I'll leave it as it is.

plan Plan PLAN!

It's been 3 weeks since my last post.
My bad, I have been opening the page to post but somehow there was no urge to write at all regardless the will to share.

It has been quite a good life so far.
I've got my results which is satisfactory.
I had full-time work for a week, and expecting the money in.... half an hour!
I hanged around with my friends.
I played my PS3 and just finished one game this afternoon, yes!
One game to go, but I think I'll be buying two more games.

This week was full about stuffs related to planning.
1. Planning my brother's notebook: What brand, which one, how much, where to buy?
I was recommending ASUS and I am expecting him to get the high-end model because I'm afraid the other models will turn out of date later this year. I asked him to check on prices in Indonesia, I am comparing with Australian prices.

2. Planning a project
Yes, I have a HUGE idea. But somehow I don't know where to start. There will be two party involved (Let's say A and B), I know I need to approach A first since this project will not run if A does not show any interest but I just can't think of the contact person, it is such a big organisation and I'm confused. Maybe I'll start researching after this post. Hopefully I can get started by next week.

3. Plan after graduate
I'm graduating end of this year and there are heaps of options available for me to choose.
Somehow my father asked about my plan and we discussed about it.

First, I want to try to work here in Australia, especially in Melbourne. My father told me to take Masters while working, he really wants me to take Masters, I guess that's fair enough.

Second, studying language. In this case, mandarin/chinese. Yup, I used to think that this will be my last option since I prefer to go to China together with my brother and sister, which mean next 3 years! But, oh well, I like language, as long as I don't have to stay there forever it should be fine.

Third, take Masters. Can you see how my options are rotating between Masters and language studies? Wait until you hear this branching option 3! I can take Masters in Melbourne, full-time. But somehow I don't really feel like taking full-time Masters anymore. But what if I can't get any job? My plan was start looking for job early October as I can start working early December. If I can't get a job by November, that means option 1 failed and I need to consider option 2 or 3. Beside, And there is a mix of option 2 and 3, maybe I should call it option 4? Yeah, sure thing.

Fourth, take Masters while studying language. Not in China for sure, I am planning to take my Masters in France while studying French! I think this is the most exciting option! I still need to do a lot of research though as I don't really understand the situation there. Luckily, I have 2 cousins who has studied and is staying there. This is the other reason I'm still awake at this time of the day, I am waiting for my cousin to come back to work to be bombarded by questions from me about studying there.

Yeah, every things in life is all about planning, good planning good life.