Something new

Today I just learnt something new about facebook.

You can actually selectively allow tagged photos to appear on your timeline. I always thought it was all or nothing.

I'm so amazed that I am making a blogpost out of it. :O

Am I happier now?

I didn't know a change in job can completely change the way people see you or should I say the aura that you give off.

After changing my job I know I'm less stress now, definitely. However, I didn't know that I have been giving off a different aura until I met a few of my friends for lunch last sunday.

This was what thing thing said and agreed by Cheryl and Sherling.

"Xiuwen, you really look happier now. More sound effects. Last time you look very tired."

So I also asked Muihong if I really sound happier now. 

" You sound more jovial when talking about work. And you not only sound effect you got dance effects too."

Although I don't really see the change in myself, since people always say 当局者迷，旁观者清, but the effects of the change in job really did reflect to the people who see me. 

I really made the right decision. :)

Last day

Today is the last day of school! Stayed in school till 6 plus today helping my mentor with some work.  Latest i have ever stayed in school,  without taking into consideration p1 orientation.  Haha, I got a shock when I went to the staff room to print something and it was all dark. 

Holiday starts tomorrow! There are pros and cons to working where you follow the school holidays. You get a longer holiday but you dont get to choose when you want to go on the holiday. 

I have been working here for about 2 and a half months and i really quite enjoy working here. Although i will complain about this and that, haha i still quite enjoy my life here. Sadly, I will be leaving in about 9 months.

So what are my aims for this holiday?
1) Lose 8kgs. Lol, the dream that never came true. 
2) Pack my room
3) Decorate my room
3) Pack my wardrobe
4) Study my Korean
5) Study phonics
6) Catch up on my blogging
7) Catch up on dramas??!
8) Catch up on sleep

Recently i finished watching master's sun. How can they make such a horror show so romantic and funny.  I love the way he say 'get lost! '

Holidays, I welcome you! So much to do, let's hope i can achieve my aim!

Australia, Sydney Day 3 - Tarango Zoo & Sydney Eye Tower

Early in the morning, went to Circular Quay to take the boat to Taronga Zoo. Bought spring roll to eat for breakfast again.

Bought the tickets online from Captain Cook Cruises for the Taronga Zoo Express which has tried try tickets for Taronga Zoo and 24 hours unlimted rides on the cruise at  $53.50 + credit card charge. I think the captain cook cruises timing are quite limited, about one boat every 45mins- 1hr in between rides, so it is quite hard to fully utilise the unlimited rides.

From the bottom of the zoo, took the cable car up the zoo. You need to have pre-paid tickets to take the cable car up the zoo if not you will need to take the bus into the zoo.

On the cable car

Tasmania Devil

Went to catch the seal show at 11am.

Say Hi!!!

I love the colour of this seal. Or is it a sea lion?

See me aim and jump!

We also paid $10 to take a picture with the koala. It's damn sad that we cannot hug the koala.

Haha, I transformed into my real self!

Me and my favourite animals. I really love gorillas!!

The tigers in Taronga zoo are really active. They were pacing up and down, up and down. Haha, then I heard it's because it was almost lunch time for them. Stayed there for quite awhile hoping to catch their lunch time but didn't managed to.

The giraffes really have a million dollar view from their house.

Didn't get to watch the bird show because during the first show we were busy queuing to take photo with the Koala and 2nd show was abit late cause we have to rush back to go to sydney eye tower. Anyway muihong has phobia of birds. 

Took the boat at 3 plus to get back to Circular Quay so we can get to Sydney Eye Tower for our skywalk at 5.30pm. Bought the skywalk tickets at $50 which included entrance fee to observation deck and the 4D show. I enjoyed the 4D show but it quite short, about 5 mins or less.

Before the skywalk, we had to do the breath analyzer so make sure that we didn't consume any alcohol. After putting on the jumper, we had to go through the metal detector and the metal detector kept beeping when I walk through it and it beeped when the person used the manual one although there is nothing in my pocket. Super weird but managed to get up there. 

The wind there was strong! As it was sunset, the view was super nice. There was the sun on one side and the moon on the other side. Plus one side of the sky was purplish pink and the other side was blue. Too bad we cannot bring our cameras while doing the skywalk. Bought the skywalk photos for $49.90, if I knew it was so expensive I may have gotten the VIP tickets which cost $109 but will include the skywalk photos and the photos we took at the entrance.

 Seriously ah, the person took so many photos but they have to choose this photo where I look damn ugly as one of the photos to be printed.

 Be prepared for your hair to fly fly fly while you are up there.

The skywalk was really a good experience for me!!!

On Sydney Eye Tower

Surprisingly, Sydney Eye Tower is really small. I was quite surprised when I hardly walked and I already walked round the whole observation deck.

After Sydney Eye Tower it was dinner time at Menya Noodle Bar at 1 Market Street. It is walkable from Sydney Eye Tower with the help of google maps. 

Super love the ramen here. Seldom you see spicy ramen that is really spicy. Super worth the visit!

After dinner to burn off the calories, we went to the supermaket.

Spent more than $100 at the supermarket. I think the cashier must be thinking I'm crazy, never see chocolates before. Half of the money spent went to Willy Wonka which were highly recommended by Karen but I have not tried it yet.

For the rest of my Australia Sydney's post - click here 

Funnies 8

Boy: how old are you?
Me: how old do you think I am?
Boy: 13 years old?

During p1 orientation,  my mentor brought one of the kids to take the lift so I joined in.
Mentor: can auntie take the lift with us? Can jie jie take the lift with us?
Inside the lift
Mentor: auntie....  (I forgot what she said)
Me: what auntie?? Is jie jie!!
Me: Do you think I'm auntie or jie jie?
Boy: *thinks super long* jie jie!

How lovable these kids are!

Random Rambling

I need to get rid of 2 habits seriously.

1) Spending money - Recently, I've been spending a lot of money, especially on online shopping. In one month, I already spent more than $200 on online shopping. Xiuwen, please ah, control.

2) Gaining weight- Ever since I started my new job, I have been gaining weight like nobody's business. In one month plus of working there, I gained like 2 kgs.

I should lose more weight and gain more money.

Children are really the most innocent and nicest people I have ever met. Ever if you only met them once for class observation, they will say hi to you when they meet you again. Then they will ask you if you will come back again tomorrow, they kind of make you feel wanted. Haha, of maybe in their brain is like, I hope she doesn't come back tomorrow. Then I will be the one digging my brain thinking where did I meet them. Although sometimes looking at them, your heart will go out to them, thinking how will they catch up with the rest of their classmates or for some, what will their future be like.

Went to class for class observation (Teacher likes to use me to scare students I realize).
Boy: Are you the discipline mistress?
Me: Lol, do I look like a discipline mistress?

Me: Can you please throw away the tissues on your table.
Boy: I feel like throwing it at the boy. Can I throw at the boy?
Me: No! 
I feel that although this boy may not be really good at studying or he may have anger management issues, he still have a certain level of respect for authority and he will listen to his teachers. I almost witnessed 2 of boys fighting during the class observation.

After these few days at work, I feel like my mind is getting polluted, seriously R21 :x

On another note, my nephew is going to enter the world likely Monday night or maybe Tuesday, so something to look forward to.

I should catch up on my blogging. I realized blogging can be quite useful when you need photos and have no idea where you keep the previous photos or just wanting to look back at life.

How many rivers must be crossed?

How many wide oceans must be passed?

To meet the me of my dreams

Australia, Sydney Day 2 - Sydney Opera House & Whale Watching

Woke up super early on day 2 because we are having our Sydney Opera House tour at 9.00am. We wanted to get the 5pm tickets but there was no more left. So we booked the 9.00am one which has special early bird discount too. Save more moolah.

 

Museum Station

Double Decker Train

How cool is there train. It's a double decker train, we only have double decker bus in Singapore. See how empty their train is. Haha, but this was a Sunday but even on a weekday morning, there will still be seats. Singapore mrt how to get such empty trains.

In return, their train tickets are ridiculously expensive. $3.80 for 2 stops (I don't think they charge by the number of stops though).

Bought a spring roll along the way for breakfast, the spring roll does not taste like our normal spring roll but it is damn good.

Our tickets cost only $29.60 as opposed to the $33.30 for the usual online tickets. Early bird tickets are for the 9am and 9.30am tours.
 

Actually, I have no idea why I took this picture, but if I took it, it should be of some importance. So I'm guessing, this is the inside of the 'sails'?

 They took the tiles out for washing or else you will never get to see this black black floor.

I think it's so sad that the designer of the sydney opera house didn't have the chance to see his creation, feels like such as waste. The whole tour takes about an hour and I think if you like to watch opera then you will be able to better appreciate the tour. 

I look quite hapy here but my teeth looks damn crooked and no eyes. After this trip, I think I became a pro at taking jump shots, inititally I need to take a few times for a perfect shot for muihong but my skill improved over time. 

Do I look like I dress very weirdly? When I showed my father this photo, he said why do I dress like a crazy woman -_-

Hot chocolate

Hot chocolate at guylian cafe was good. I'm not good a differentiating whether a particular food is good or very good but according to muihong, the hot chocolate there was the best hot chocolate ever. After hot chocolate and lunch, it was time for whale watching.

I was expecting too much for this whale watching cruise. Paid $49 for the whale watching cruise with Captaincook, which was a big discount from the actual price of $90. I'm not sure if it is cheaper booking online, but if there is no special price online, I think it is cheaper booking directly when you are there since they charge 1.5% for credit card payment. 

Sea meets the sky

So when soembody tell me whale watching, I was expecting to really see whales but all I saw was one adolescent whale which was super far away. The thing is the boat is quite big, so imagine you are at one side of the boat and the whale appear the far end of another side of the boat and by the time you rush to the other side of the boat, the whale went underwater again. The worst thing is, I took out my spectacles hoping to get a better look at the whale and I ended up losing my spectacles. I'm just clumsy like that, more clumsiness in the days to come.

When we were returning, it started raining. The good thing that came out from the trip is being able to see the rainbow.

Rainbow

Double Rainbow

Although the whale watching part of the whale watching cruise is quite disappointing, the ride out to the sea was fun cause it was quite fast which makes it exciting. Why aren't we one of those lucky ones who gets to see sharks or dolphins or killer whales or just a whale within a nearer proximity.

Sydney Opera House

Pirates of the Caribbean Ship

My photos standard not bad eh!

Went for the free walking tour for the rocks. Technically it is free but at the end of the tour the tour guide will ask you to tip according to what you think the tour is worth.

The tour guide is really good. She's a history major student which means she is younger than me but she can speak so well in front of a crowd.

I made this building look like a haunted house. I took this because this building is going to be demolished soon.

Art

Two of the many bars fighting to be the oldest bar at the rocks.

After the tour, it was time for dinner. We had dinner at Sydney Madang.

Luckily we didn't have to queue long, about 10 minutes and we got a seat. So damn good to be able to hide in the restaurant cause it was raining outside. The Korean food there is good. Haha, I kind of dig in already before taking this photo. Their side dishes are good but they don't refill them for you automatically, I think you need to ask. The pancake is good. My chicken tasted abit like chinese chicken but still good.

For the rest of my Australia Sydney's post - click here