where my shoes have taken me

where have your shoes taken you?

gong xi, gong xi, gong xi ni...

it's the year of the doggie... which means that it is finally my year! i hope that the doggie year will bring you all lots of happiness, love, good luck, prosperity and good health.

my conversation with a childhood friend

i was talking to my childhood friend today... we grew up together, went to primary school for a bit together... played dress-ups together... drank together... u name it... we experienced it together...

we got to talking about dogs and he mentioned that he was going to be buying a dalmation soon... the conversation went on and on... here are some funnies from our conversation:

talking about desexing dogs...

V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
hmm...when it becomes unmanageable..ill de-sex them
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
but if its ok..i wont
miss j* says:
nah
miss j* says:
need to do it before 6 months
miss j* says:
otherwise they get scarred
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
especially male..they lose their bite if they get the chop
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
oh yah thats rite
miss j* says:
maxi hasn't lost his bite
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
some do ler..bigger dogs do....
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
makes a difference..somewhat
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
but yah...see how lor..
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
if scar then scar lor...its not like its gonna be on a catwalk or anything
miss j* says:
no!!
miss j * says:
as in EMOTIONALLY SCARRED YOU FOOL!!
------------------

talking about naming our dogs (i first suggested 'busta' or 'bailey' or 'beau')

V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
eh eh...name name...
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
bailey? sounds like the liquor..don like
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
beau..sounds aussie...don like
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
busta...
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
gimme more
miss j* says:
call it bb jai!
miss j* says:
hahaha
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
hahahaha
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
bb jai...
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
u have the permanent image of this fluffy white sack of fur still in ur mind rite...
V o C E N E S Q U E ™ 2 0 0 6 - * €..* says:
its a dalmatian for godsake...a big dog
miss j* says:
hahahaa

14 Things to do at K-mart

1. Get 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's carts when they aren't looking.
2. Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.
3. Make a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the rest rooms.
4. Walk up to an employee and tell him/her in an official tone, 'Code 3' in housewares. and see what happens.
5. Go the Service Desk and ask to put a bag of M&M's on lay-by.
6. Move a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.
7. Set up a tent in the camping department and tell other shoppers you'll invite them in if they'll bring pillows from the bedding department.
8. When a clerk asks if they can help you, begin to cry and as! k 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'
9. Look right into the security camera; use it as a mirror, and pick your nose.
10. Dart around the store suspiciously loudly humming the "Mission Impossible" theme.
11. In the auto department, practice your "Madonna look" using different size funnels.
12. Hide in a clothing rack and when people browse through, say "PICK ME!" "PICK ME!"
13. When an announcement comes over the loud speaker, assume the fetal position and scream "NO! NO! It's those voices again!!!!"

( And; last, but not least!)

14. Go into a fitting room and shut the door and wait a while; and then yell, very loudly, "There is no toilet paper in here!"

birthdays galore...

the weekend of birthday celebrations started on friday with my sister, amanda's birthday dinner at kobe jones, king street wharf. we had a fine selection of foods... starting with kobe jones' infamous no. 1 special, followed by 3 sushi rolls: the crunchy roll; the volcano roll; and the spider roll, agedashi tofu, beef tataki and baked dynamite scallops. we had some cocktails and wine at dinner and decided to go home before proceeding to minsky's bar. thankfully the birthday girl was too tired to go out and we stayed home to watch a dvd. i have elected not to reveal what the dvd was as i feel that it is way too embarrassing for me to admit to watching such trash on a friday night at home, sober.

saturday was danielle's birthday so we headed to mars lounge at surry hills. there was another birthday party there that night and lucky for us it was themed. we first thought it was a pimp 'n' hoe party, but later it was revealed that the party was themed to come dressed as something starting with 's'. it all made sense... all the girls decided to come dressed as sluts. there was a santa's little helper slut, a snow white slut, a stripper slut and just a plain slut (amongst other characters). quite amusing but very distasteful and disturbing at the same time. anyway, the night was great... nice to hang out with the girls who made me feel welcome in this strange city called sydney.

to finish off the weekend, danielle had a bbq on the sunday afternoon at her place... she called it the hangover bbq... rather appropriate as many of us looked and felt like we had just been to hell and back.

do you have mad woman syndrome?

i was chatting to t on msn today and we were talking about women being overly sensitive and moody during THAT time of the month. we talked about the issue for a while trying to figure out symptoms, cures and actions for prevention.

unfortunately, we concluded that there will always be one week (give or take a few days) in every month that any given woman will suffer from an evil disease which cannot be mitigated, is unexplainable and incurable. this horrid disease is what my friend rachael from uni commonly refers to as 'mad woman syndrome'.

mad woman syndrome (abb. mws) is defined as the female act of being overly sensitive and moody for no particular reason. it requires that the man is obligated to being patient, to forgive the unreasonable female behaviour he may encounter and that he will endeavour to understand that no matter what the lady may say or do during this period (pardon the pun), such as attempting to 'break up' (seriously, when this type of threat is said when mws is prevalent, it really doesn't count), it will all be forgotten about once the syndrome has passed.

symptoms for this disease include:

unexplainable temper tantrums
e.g. your boyfriend meets your for lunch but you chuck a tantrum because he didn't say anything about the fact that you didn't use black mascara, instead you decided to you dark grey.

unreasonable requests
e.g. asking your boyfriend to drive 2 hours away to buy you a krispy kreme just to prove that he loves you.

expecting that your boyfriend suddenly develops the ability to read your mind
e.g. telling you boyfriend you don't mind if he goes home when in your mind you really don't want him to leave. then when he goes home, you get upset, throw a tantrum and get sulky. i mean surely he could have read your mind and known that when u said 'go home it's late' u actually meant 'it's so nice of you to stay, can you please stay all night?'

cures for this disease include:
there are no cures

how to prevent from getting this disease:

if you are a woman, unfortunately you are born with it and there is nothing you do can prevent you from getting this disease.

if you are a man and believe you had mws, please contact your nearest psychologist - you need some serious help.

please contact the mws helpline on 1800-i-am-a-mad-woman for more information.

my pleasant surprise

for the past few weeks i have been ranting and raving about wanting to see zhang zi yi's new movie - memoirs of a geisha. i read the novel (no kidding) a while ago and i remember it to be one of the best i've read to date (keep in mind, miss j doesn't really read so comparisons are somewhat limited). on wednesday, i received a pleasant surprise from ian. he sent a dozen roses and 2 tickets to memoirs of a geisha. he says it was to shut me up from talking about it all the time - i think it's because he fancies me... (*wink*) so i guess i have to take him to see it with me?

another thing that i'm excited about is an upcoming trip to melbourne. i haven't been to melbourne since 1999 and back then, i had no idea what it meant to shoptillyoudrop. i am now older, now wiser and to a limited degree, more financially able to experience melbourne at its best! not only that - i also get to spend then entire weekend with my sister mel c!

t and mel c are also planning a trip to sydney for the weekend of my birthday! WHAT MORE COULD I ASK FOR?!?! can't wait!!

the afternoon intruder

i was working from home today, sitting on the couch, going through some web based training whilst watching layer cake on dvd. i heard this big *bang* in the kitchen and rushed over to see what it was... little maxi baby was staring calmly at something and as i walked over i got a taste of what he saw... a frikking bird!

A BIRD in MY APARTMENT! WHAT THE BULLSHIT?!? no only was it a bird... it was a shitting bird... like maxi's poos aren't enough for me to clean up, now i gotta clean bird shit too?

the bird sat on top of the clothes dryer for a good 10 minutes before it figured out how to get out of my place. let's hope this little visitor doesn't come again!

true colours...

my friend, chong, sent me a little quiz that tells your personality based upon colour type.

Janet, your true color is Black!

Your color is black. The color of night. Serene and mysterious, black conjures up images of elegant evening gowns, dashing tuxedos, and gleaming limousines. Traditionally a symbol of success, black also represents power and an uncompromising demand for perfection. Not surprisingly, you tend to set challenging goals for yourself and do whatever it takes to achieve them — your strength of character is second to none. This unfaltering determination, along with your natural elegance, impresses people. But keep in mind that your personality might be intimidating to some. Try to temper your demanding side with a little softness — trust us, it won't kill you. Overall, though, black is the color of professionalism and achievement, which means it's clearly the color for you.

i would have to say that i agree with everything the colour black represents. i am destined for great things my friends so watch this space...

season festivities

so the celebrations all began 2 weeks ago. first we had christmas, then we had a nice break from work and then we welcomed the new year.

~the work christmas party~
we had our work christmas party at the sheraton on the park. the theme was 'salsa'. it wasn't mandatory to dress for the occasion - so even though i had good intentions to do so, i got last minute cold feet and decided to go simple - LBD (a.k.a. little black dress).




my colleague and i decided to book a room so we wouldn't have to fight the drunklords for a cab at the end of the night and also just in case we needed to pass out fast. the free flow of alcohol was great! i was in heaven - sangria (not really my style), champagne (yes please!), white wine, red wine and beer... what more could i ask for?

~christmas dinner~
the next christmas thing was the family one. we celebrated christmas slightly earlier this year as my parents were only in sydney from thursday night (22nd) till saturday morning (24th). i managed to work from home on the friday which meant that i became an unwilling volunteer to prepare the friday night christmas banquet for over 10 people. we had 2 stuffed chickens, 2 roast porks, 2 lobsters and ian's specialty - scallop and prawn ravioli with a tomato dressing (a la tetsuya style).




maxi had a fantastic night. he definitely scored the most presents our of everyone. even my dad bought him a present - and my dad does NOT buy presents. you can read about his night here.

~christmas day lunch~
amanda decided to go asian style this year and cooked 2 mud crabs for christmas lunch. we adopted chern and kar meng for the day and the five of us ate one mud crab with a ginger shallot sauce and another mud crab in a chilli sauce. *delicious*

~new years eve~
we decided to have a 'quiet' one this year and stay away from the crowds. i held a new years eve party at ian's place and invited all the people who wanted a 'quiet' one over. wei ming decided to take charge of ordering kfc - he ordered 80 pieces of chicken, 10 tubs of coleslaw 5 boxes of chips and 5 tubs of potato and gravy. peter made 3 packets of fried noodles (half of which were burnt and not so tasty) and i bought 4 kgs worth of mince and ian and i (ian more than i) made beef patties to make hamburgers.

and then there was the alcohol... 16 bags of ice, a bath tub full of beers and a 40L esky of punch was more than enough to get the 30 odd attendees well and truly drunk (yours truly included). wei ming and i took charge of making the punch and by the end of the night mastered the art of making 'good' punch. here is the recipe:

• 8 bottles of champagne
• 1 bottle of malibu
• 2 bottles of vodka
• 1 bottle of gin
• 3 cans of mixed fruit
• 2 bottles of lemonade
• 1 bottle of lemon soda

and that's how you make punch...

on a more serious note... i guess now would be a good time to look back on the year that was 2005 and the resolutions that i had set for myself a year ago.

my list of resolutions from 2005:

• i will attempt to exercise at least 4 times a week [failed]
• i will not drink excessively (this will be a tough one...) [failed]
• i will quit the fags (AMEN!!) [failed]
• i will not be an emotional f*ckwit [passed]
• i will turn up to work on time [passed]
• i will not email excessively at work (another tough one...) [passed]
• i will not continue to associate with men who are emotionally unavailable (AMEN!!) [passed]
• i will keep in touch with all my girlfriends on a regular basis [passed - i think]
• i will continue to update my blog and keep my girls updated on my life... [passed]

not bad eh?

on the whole, i would say that 2005 was a year of self discovery. i'm not 100% there yet but i'm definitely a lot more confident of myself now that i was 12 months ago. i am thankful for my wonderful and ever supportive family, my amazingly strong and beautiful friends, the man i call gonza and my career. i finally have direction after 2005 and i am beginning to realise what is important to me and what is not.

i'll remember 2005 for many reasons... but unfortunely 2005 will always be a rememberance of the year that i lost a sister to the heavens above.

overandout.