Sick as a WOOF WOOF

For the record, I've been sick since Victoria Day 2017.  To date, that would be 2 days shy of 6 weeks.  First it was strep throat, which I stubbornly did not see a doctor for until day 5.  Add 10 days of Amoxil on top of that would see my first round of suffering end for all of 4 days.  Round 2 of strep had me almost fainting at my hair appointment that I suffered for 2 days too many because the doctor couldn't believe I had strep back to back.  Before the second round of Amoxil even ended, I started coughing out my lungs.  Two hours waiting for my third doctor's visit saw me out with two puffers, Hycodan and a nasal spray.  F.M.L.

Just now, I almost puked from coughing.  This really sucks.

I hate being sick.

Twenty Fourteen Just Couldn't Go By Faster

Wow, I just realized that my blog was pretty pathetic for 2014.  Have I been lazy?  Were there a lack of life to document?  Did I get more and more bitter about life so I don't want to remind myself of the bitterness?  Oh, oh, oh....does this all have anything to do with... get ready... 犯太歲?

I've never been a superstitious person, at least I don't think I am, but honestly 2014 couldn't just go by any faster.   太歲年 = 事幹多.  I was told several years ago that 犯太歲 doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing.  It just means lots of things will happen, whether good or bad.  Well, 2014 was certainly eventful.  Unfortunately, it wasn't for the better I'm afraid.

Reflecting upon the last few new years posts, I realized that I've become quite bitter in 2014.  I can tell from the lack of bubbly flair while writing this post compared to those from a few years ago.  If I need to choose One Little Word for 2015, it'll probably be FREE.  I'd like to free myself from the bitterness that I'm currently feeling; freely pick up my hobbies again; free up my soul from all negative fields and bring my life back to something more mentally manageable.  How's that for a New Year's Resolution?

One thing I'm proud of achieving in the past year, is the ability to get myself into bed around midnight.  Compared to that of a few years ago, when I was going to bed at 2am every night, it's a drastic change.  For the better.  Now if only I can haul my ass into work at the decent hour, that would be just dandy.

Time flies not only when you're having fun, but believe it or not, it also flies by when you're having a shitty year.  It's now 6.5 months since I've left Harding and 2 weeks until I move again.  Brings back fond memories of all the stress I went through to settle into the condo back in 2010.  Only now in tri-fold or so it seems.  I really should be excited to finally move into the townhouse, but I guess until all the deficiencies are rectified and we settle in, I don't expect to feel the excitement.  Heck, I haven't even started packing yet! 

Twenty Fifteen:  Please be nice to me.  Please.

Wut?!? November Already?

Dear Blog,

I have neglected you.  I'm sorry.

Love,

me

PS, I'll be back soon, but I just can't believe it's already November...

Another Year

... goes by

(Happy birthday to my dear Luis 表哥 too... wherever you are, I hope you're happy)

Recent Accomplishment

I can proudly say that I have marked another accomplishment (albeit mini, but accomplishment nonetheless) off the 小芬's "handyman-ess" list (if you can even classify that as a word) aka "邊個話要靠男人" list.   I have successfully changed the brake lights on my buggy!  Okay, fine, retarded as it sounds and yes, it was extremely easy, but I did pay $12-15 to my mechanic each time I needed it changed for the last xx years, so for five bucks and ten minutes of my time, I saved $25 (bulbs come in two's).

For the record, this cost me $4.97 at Walmart

Hey, what can I say?  Between finding a place to temporarily stay for the next half year to fussing with the finishes for the townhome to dealing with idiotic morons at work, my life's been crazy to say the least.  So a 10-minute achievement was enough to set a smile on my face and make my evening.

I'm not really looking forward to moving since I'm really missing my condo already but I know the two weeks will just fly right by.  Sigh...  Time to pack soon, but for now I really should sleep, haha.

Homeless

Looking back at a post from January 2010, I can't help but chuckle a bit.  Can't believe four years have past and I'm moving again.  This time:

1 full week of cleaning and preparation
2 days on the market
3 offers to purchase

4 showings (only)

SOLD! for full asking price (THANKS AGAIN KAREN!!!)

However, I can't help but feel a little bittersweet.  I thought I would miss Northtown a lot but I only miss it a little, that being my first ever condo.  But here, I poured over blueprints, plans, did all the pricing and marketing, sales opening, office closing, assigned all the parking/lockers, chose all the finishes, watch the building get built, fussed over the problems, deficiencies and finally settled into the home I "put together" from start to finish.  I love everything about this condo: view, size, bathrooms, ALL my finishes (my backsplash!!), appliances... but in another month, I'm going to leave this baby of mine.  :'(

What I DON'T particularly like about this place is everything that happens outside of my four walls - how the building is run and basically, the people living here.  

I know I must move on and constantly tell myself I can't stay here any longer.  From an investment point of view it's leave now or leave never.  Too many developments are under construction in this corridor and all the new stuff will make this building look like it was built in the 90's.  Time to leave 小芬, time to leave...

Come July 7th, I will officially be homeless until the new TH is done.  I thought I would luck out and rent the boss's son's unit short term but that's a no go.  Now I have to quickly find a place (stress), finalize my damn colour chart for the TH (freaking stress ^ 27635162 as it already took 2 months and it's still not done), move twice (stress x2), then settle in finally and then go through the entire process again in a year (stress ^27635162 x2).  WTH did I get myself into??

Dammit, I'm going to miss this place ...

I'm So Upset!

Haven't blogged in so long.  Every time I come to my blog I'm feeling pissed, angry, upset, tired, a combination of the above or worst yet, all of the above.  I figure, why document life when I'm upset?  So I can remember the times I was angry?  Well, I've come to realize that if I don't start somewhere, my blog will permanently be neglected.  Now, where do I start...

**********
(post started March 12, 2014)

Sometimes I really wonder if I'm going to die of a heart attack or stroke.  I'm always so uptight with so many things that send my blood pressure through the roof.  Lately, there's been too many things that got on my nerves... so many, that it deserves an entire blog post devoted to it.

In no particular order:

Retail Stupidity
People who know me well know how much I hate dealing with half-brained people.  I just can't tolerate stupidity, especially when said doorknobs are snobby/snooty.  話説 some idiot merchandiser at Target misprinted a few price labels (for two consecutive weeks, mind you.  Tells you what kind of doorknobs Target hires) and someone took photos and posted them on RFD.  Said labels gave people the opportunity to price match and effectively save $55 off the premier version of TurboTax, making it a whopping $15 only.  Every year, I wait until SIG sells the standard version of TurboTax for $10 before buying it so for an extra $5, I decided it was worth my while to try PM-ing.  After all, there were numerous success stories reported so what have I to lose?

Well.

Let me begin by saying I have never... ever... spent 2.5 hours doing a price match.  EVER.  Needless to say, I was pissed.

To make the really long story short, the rep at Best Buy was nice enough to try and score me the PM, while protecting his job at the same time (aka, doing his job properly) so he spent a good 15 minutes or so searching the retarded and crippled Target website for pricing info.  That didn't work, since Target's website is retarded and crippled.  I mentioned that already.

Phone Call 1 - Hillcrest Target
On hold for at least 45 minutes
Once someone picked up, he exclaimed that not a single Target in Canada carries the premier version of TurboTax (so they do in the US?  It's Canadian tax software, duh?).  Both the BB rep and I told him we have a picture of a Target price tag showing the product and price.  Target guy says the label must belong to another store, not his.  We ask what store it's for, he said Cloverdale.  At this point, 1.5hrs.

Phone Call 2 - Cloverdale Target
On hold for 10 minutes (does anyone work at Target??)
BB rep asks for someone in electronics... on hold again (WTF)
Asks to confirm price and was told his store doesn't carry software.  Period.  Both the BB rep and I were doubtful.  BB rep asks that he checks his system and magically, they carry it, but must be out of stock and cannot confirm price.  Both BB rep and I are now very frustrated (more so me since it's way past dinnertime now).  We ask that Target rep confirm price on tag and offered to fax him copy for reference.  He declined.  Asked him why he can't confirm price of a tag from his store.  Here's the kicker: it's not his store.  I just about fainted.  Puts me on hold to check store number and comes back saying the store is in Ottawa.  He's positive because he even called the store to confirm.  Fine.  2hr mark.

I am royally pissed.  BB rep needs to get to the bottom of this stupidity so he can use it in the store's future training.  He feels sorry for me.

I feel sorry for me.

At this point, we've all determined that whoever printed the label put the wrong item description on with a price and barcode that belonged to the standard version.  All the BB rep was looking for was an answer from a Target employee to say they'd honour the price so that he could proceed with giving me the discount.

Phone Call 3 - Ottawa Target
Doorknob 3 was the worst.  He got into an argument with me.  After the same schpeel for the third time in trying to establish the product in question, I asked whether they would honour their own error.

Me:  If your store priced a product incorrectly, will you honour the price?
DK3:  No.
Me:  WHAT?!?  What is your store policy?
DK3:  No, we can't give you the price for something we don't carry.
Me:  That's not what I'm asking.  Let's say you priced a carton of milk incorrectly someone goes to pay and it scans differently.  Are you going to honour that price?
DK3:  No.  Now you're being unreasonable and comparing apples to oranges.
.
.
.
After some further unnecessary exchange, doorknob 3 asked that the BB rep REPHRASE his question so that he can answer it so that he's "comparing apples to apples".  I passed the phone over and the BB rep looked at me with a WTF expression, rephrased his question and finally got the answer I've been waiting for after 2.5 hours.

BB rep:  Now how many copies of this do you want?  You sure you don't need like 5 after all we've been through?

I lost 2.5 hours of my life that I'm never going to recover, just to pay for a program to effectively give more money to the government.  Something doesn't even sound right.  *shake my head

If I wasn't so busy at work (and exhausted) around the time of the incident I would have totally caused a stink with Target head office.  Especially since the idiots at that store made the same mistake the following week and printed the same shelf tag.

目無法紀
I even get upset with things that do not directly relate to me.  How am I going to survive the inevitable?  There are inconsiderate people everywhere and I'm aware of that.  I know I can't change the world either.  Which makes me wonder why I get so worked up over other peoples' stupidity and inconsideration.

Purchaser called to complain he couldn't take his things out of a locker that's owned by someone else.  Wut?  So you used someone's locker without consent and you have the nerve to complain?  Then he went ahead and cut off the lock to take his stuff back.  Erm, can we say trespassing?  I have no respect for these people.  IDIOT.

Anti-Opinion-ers (aka Askholes)
I really hate it when time after time, I'm approached for an opinion in which I spend x amount of time to research an answer and the person does the exact opposite.  I'm not naming names but this infamous person does it ALL THE TIME!  文生 asks me why I bother giving advice when I know the outcome is going to be the contrary.  Sometimes I ask myself the same thing.  Gotta stop being so 熱心.  Always comes back to bite me in the ass.

Liars
Then there are the liars that call me periodically to complain and when I call out their lies they turn around and tell me I'm not high enough in the company to make decisions so I should let them talk to someone else.  Then why freaking call me in the first place?

**********
I so need to vent.  Unfortunately, it's 3am and I'm just rambling on and on.  Might as well get this over with.  That, or I stab myself with a fork again, LOL.  Gotta release my frustrations somehow.  Sigh.

March was just bad.  I worked 3 openings, 3 weeks straight; 文生 has been sick for a month; he got CLM sick and he was throwing up, having fevers, coughing up cur jam everywhere, and didn't eat for 9 days; got mom sick; got me sick; got CLM sick again; and guess what?  文生's still sick.  It's April 8th.  FML.

There's so much I want/need to do but I just can't get my mind around to doing it, especially with a household full of sick people.  My Roomba is not going to fix itself anytime soon, ya know... and when people say 禍不單行?  They're right.  The day I decide to roll down my window, happens to be a freaking cold one, and it decides not to roll back up.  Same day, 文生's brilliant mom drives his car 20km... with... a... flat... tire.  Six hundred dollars worth of repairs later...

Over a bottle of wine (or two), I'm going to have to eventually go down my bucket list and check some things off:

• Service my poor roomba
• Catch up with CLM's pic-a-day as I'm a full month behind :(
• Finish my jumping clay terracotta warrior
• Start and catch up with P365-2014 (don't think this will ever happen)
• Finish blogging HK/TW 2013 - down to the last 3 days
• Bake something, anything
• Go on vacation 
• Catch up with blogging - so many things I should be writing about, yet I chose to complain :(
• Take my poor buggy in for a long overdue oil change

I should really go to sleep now.

/rant

I Did It!

小芬 is a little techy, a little geeky and a little handy, even if I say so myself.  Recently, I've taken apart my Roomba to service the clunking sound the brush assembly was making; I fixed a flashlight in which I removed a couple of corroded, exploded, stuck batteries; I installed two light fixtures and two dimmer switches in Tinlop's new condo; and my newest accomplishment: fix the scroll wheel of all three of my malfunctioning MS mice.

Following the powers of the interwebs, I found some pretty detailed instructions on how to tweak and fix the issues and now I have a whooping four functioning Arc mice (including the new red one).  Stupid MS just had to make things difficult by using one torx screw (out of 7, in which the other 6 were all Phillips) so I had to make a special trip out to Home Depot to pick up the right screwdriver.  So much work!  LOL~  The fix was actually really easy once the screw is out, took all of 3 minutes per mouse.

All fixed, yay!

On another note, I haven't worked a crazy opening in years nor have a worked a project where we sold out entirely in 20 hours.  Despite not having a complete APS (I had to make the schedules), no disclosure docs, faulty internet connection, computers that couldn't connect to our server, photocopier that stopped working, we still pulled off selling them all.  The paisans started lining up at 3am (yes, I was still at work) and it was funny to hear them exaggerate about being there since 2am.  Typical paisans.

Reception area of the sales office

Dining area

Kitchen - I love this kitchen

Living area - with a $15,000 upgraded fireplace built-in

Spacious 20ft wide, so atypical of a townhouse

The mob of people, angry that they didn't get a chance to even come in, let alone buy one

Time I left work on Friday - yes, I'm dedicated

Nick got us each a bottle of Veuve Clicquot for all our hard work!  We all deserved it!

Condo townhomes, 2,100sq.ft., $700,000... a little hard to swallow but people inhaled all 69 of them nonetheless.  Wish I had that kind of money to burn.

I Know What I Want For My Birthday This Year!

Aaaahhhh, brings back high school memories!!!  The white one is soooooo sweet!!!

Excruciating Pain!

In all the years I've known that I have scoliosis, I don't believe my back has hurt this much. Hurts like a MOFO!! I can hardly bend over, drive or sit up straight! I was kept up all last night because of the pain. Soooo tired! Just wanna go home and lie down!

Happy Dance :D

I managed to survive long enough without taking Reactine to finally have my allergy test done yesterday. OMG! I'm not allergic to any foods!!!!! Hoot!! Woo Woo Woo!!!

On the other hand, I'm supposed to be allergic to all the environmental allergens; dust mites, ragweed, tree pollen, cats, dogs and birds. As long as I can eat whatever still, I can do with a little sneezing and running faucet. The doctor said my nasty hives outbreak may have been due to other things like a brewing infection (recall the UTI incident two weeks after the first outbreak) . A lot of the time, the cause of the reaction is not known. Indeed I was a happy camper when the doctor said: "Eat whatever you want and enjoy your seafood!" YEEEESSSSSS!

I need to celebrate!

Sleepless Night

I've been pretty tired the last few days and not wanting to do anything as a result. Last night I made an attempt to sleep early and of course failed miserably. I do remember a really disgusting "nightmare" though: 炒小強. I was 炒ing away in the dream and most disgusted at the fact. Of course I didn't eat any, but remember giving one to Meishan to try who in turn told me: 未熟喎! Absolutely disgusting!!! I'm so sorry Meishan, to put you in my dream like that! I'm shuddering at the fact as I'm writing this!

I'd rather be drinking perfume... right, V?

Woke up this morning to a really really sore right arm. I must have slept on it weird...

Stressed = Nightmares?

First of all, am I even stressed? What did I do to deserve all these nightmares? Recap of my recent sleepless nights in a nutshell:

• 大批軍隊入城, 見人就殺, 帶頭巾嘅印度人冇事----> 結果我同文生周圍搵頭巾包頭
• 俾 Stephen King 小說 It 裡面嘅小丑追住我嚟嚇----> 結果我就俾佢追到醒為止
• 前晚個夢都幾攪笑, well not really: 俾幾個飛來飛去嘅血滴子追----> 結果我又俾佢追到醒
• 最小兒科都算係今朝個夢: 我好鍾意嘅手袋無啦啦爛咗, 爆晒線, 爛得好不堪----> 結果我好唔開心所以醒咗

I blame my last two days of poopiness on my lack of good sleep...next one to cross my line of fire will SUFFER!!!

Our Special Day

我和你相處時間不長, 卻建立了一份深厚的感情. 我們互相的信任可能好比已婚多年的夫婦. 還記得當天將我們距離拉近的竟然是 Ontario Health Card Services 的一張表格. 記得當你在「出生日期」填上7月30日的時候, 我立刻便打了你一下, 說道: 「甭玩啦! 填你自己的出生日期呀!」 話剛出口隨即就想起: 我們剛相識不久, 你沒可能知道我的生日! 想到這裡, 你已經填完年份 - 1973年. 你用好奇的眼光望著我問: 「你也是7月30日的嗎?」 從那一剎那開始我們再沒有隔膜. 天南地北、風花雪月, 無所不談.

我永遠不會忘記我們只是短短一年間的相處、深夜談天的日子和往後3年相隔兩地後的書信來往. 種種記憶, 並沒有在你離開之後而幻滅. 11年了...你已經離開了11年. 我也不會忘記你離開後我哭了多少次、哭了多久. 每年生日我都會想起你, 卻又有甚麼出奇? 那有不想你的可能? 只是: 你有否想起我呢? 想到這裡, 不禁覺得有些心酸、一點心疼.

不知道為甚麼近來心情分外忐忑. 或許是今年特別想你. 今天是我們的生日. 當朋友、家人祝我生日快樂的同時, 我也希望你在他方會感到幸福、快樂.

表哥, 祝你生日快樂!

不充實的人生

怎樣才可以過一個充實的人生?

我常常問自己這個問題. 不是不滿足現有的生活, 只是覺得不大充實. 中學時後, 有想過當演員. 天天工作安排得密密麻麻, 連睡覺都沒時間, 但可以多方面嘗試不同的東西、擴寬視野. 娛樂事業看來多姿多彩, 但當演員是否就可以活得精采、活得充實?

最近收看『日日有食神V』得知主持韜韜出錢在內地開了廚師班, 讓內地沒錢讀書的男孩可以選擇學廚, 離鄉後可以有一技旁身. 我又想起早前『向世界出發III』播出的時候, 報導余慕蓮捐出自己大部分身家在內地起學校. 真感動! 活了大半生, 將自己辛苦得來的回贈社會, 自問又有多少人做得到?

庸庸碌碌過活的我就想: 「終有一天, 我也可以到內地起學校!」

現在要想個方法令自己走出這條「頹廢」路、撇去third-life crisis. 究竟我要做甚麼才可以開始我這條「起學校」大計呢? 我猜不是每天儲幾塊吧?

厭

久不久我就會對工作產生一份強烈的感覺. 每次都可以用一個字來形容:

厭

It's gotta be one of those days today...

有感而發

今天駕車回公司發白日夢時想到:

幸福 - 不是必然的
健康 - 也不是必然的
朋友 - 更加不是必然的

所以要珍惜擁有的幸福、健康、和朋友.

希望細V娘親可以早日康復. 希望公公沒事.

Nightmares

So, it's been proven that even if you're not aware or don't remember it, you dream quite a bit when you sleep. Boy, was I aware of it last night!! I had three nightmares in one sleep cycle! At least I remember I had three, might have been more LOL. Now I vaguely remember the one that freaked me out the most. I made a mental note to myself to remember it so I can blog it...

I remember I was inside a building that felt like a lab of some sort, with lots of corridors, brightly lit, and lots of locked doors. The building was very much like a maze. Every corner I turned looked the same. I don't remember what I was doing there, but a bunch of us were there and then taken hostage by a group of women...I think they were all women. A few of us managed to hide somewhere when these people unlocked a whole bunch of psychiatric patients. For some odd reason, those patients acted like zombies and obeyed all the commands that these women fired off. The psychiatric people shooed everyone outside to a grassed courtyard where there was a boat waiting in the river next to the courtyard taking all the hostages on board. I think I was held hostage myself eventually and met up with a friend (whom now I have forgotten who). That "friend" didn't know I was taken hostage and joined us as I was "forced" to drive off in a car. I remember discreetly writing something on the palm of my friend's hand and dammit, he/she was ticklish!!!! I eventually grabbed a pen from out of the blue and wrote on his/her palm: "秋香"... I can't even remember why I had to write that. Then I think I woke up realizing it was a dream.

I hate having all those hide and seek type nightmares. To this day, I still remember the one I had when a bunch of armed men with rifles held up a food court and took an entire shopping mall of people hostage while robbing each and every one in the mall. In that nightmare, I remember freaking out when my sister walked off somewhere when I wanted to gather my family to leave as soon as I noticed some guy with a gun in his belt inside a Toys R Us store. Or was it a Home Depot? Of course we didn't leave in time since I found out that group of people held up a food court la. Totally weird.