Settling Down at Work

Thank God, I've passed my first week at work without mishaps. God even blessed me with a $5 tip from a kind old lady. I entertained her with my "broken" cantonese (the only language she speaks) and she gave me the tip to buy food to eat. Hee....

And I've trained 2 new receptionists. What? You ask.

I'm training new receptionists when I'm almost as new? Hee....

Not bad lah...at least I get to "revise" what I've learnt. It's not easy teaching...sometimes the trainees ask questions that I also don't know. So we learn together. Good experience!

Here's how I look in my uniform. Not bad huh? This is a "high-class" receptionist job. Uniform also nice nice one. How? Look professional or not?

新年快乐， 万事如意！

Yes yes, I know this is 1 week late. Sorry lah. I was working the entire last week. (:

This is the first year I spend CNY away from home. I miss my bah kwa, my yu sheng, and my mum's traditional steamboat dinner. The CNY atmosphere here is near to zero, except for a small bazaar at chinatown. Most aussies don't even know it's CNY. But well, maybe it's just here is Brisbane. It could be more happening in other states.

So, what do we do when we are away from home, but still want to enjoy CNY?

First, decorate the house like how you would do it back home (I used to nag mum about putting all these "le-longs" in the past..but now I know their significance...Haha)

A long "spring" at our balcony...

Another "spring" donning the living room

Cards from mum and auntie..flown all the way from home. Heart-warming....

And abit of "blessed-ness" for the new year. Emphasis is on the "Fu" word lah. But also important is the tin of egg rolls we bought from chinatown. Another CNY snack in addition to my very successful Batch 2 pineapple tarts. Hee...

Then comes the CNY eve. My neighbours and I cooked a few dishes and we had our little reunion dinner. Nothing too fancy...because we were leaving our tummies for the steamboat feast the next day...

Spring rolls - to welcome the "spring festival" and abundance

Salmon - nian nian you yu (every year got "savings" - same sound as fish in chinese)

Prawns - he ha da xiao (cantonese sound for laugh loud loud - happy for the new year)

The rest - herbal soup, vegetables and chicken wings...were cooked simply because we liked them.

The "gang" at Lissner Street....enjoying dinner under the moon at our balcony

And yes, we had our steamboat feast as promised.

Hungry already?

Surprise Party

Last night we had a surprise party for Mei. Well, intended surprise party. Guess we did not cover our tracks that well and she sort of guess the event beforehand. But, we still had a good time.

It's the first time we had so many people in our house! Hee...not bad. Still can fit 14 people quite comfortably. Really thank God for this place. And that we can open up our house for events and gatherings. We shall continue to do this! We enjoy having guests anyway....(:

Well, what's a party without a highlight? We had lotsa food left, so what do we do? We decided to stuff grapes into Kane's mouth and guess how many grapes can fit in. It was hilarious how he kept stuffing the grapes.

Pineapple Attempt - No. 1

I made pineapple tarts yesterday - To satisfy me and hubby's (mainly me lah) craving for chinese new year goodies.

Attempt was commendable (judged by yours truly). The jam filling was yummy, but the pastry abit hard. Mum say put less egg white next time. Hubby say don't bake too long. Brother found new recipes for me from the net. So, I'll try again. I must perfect this!

How are you today? How may I help you?

Today I started my first day training as a receptionist. (no pay one hor)
But the normal pay is $12/hour. At least better than I work part-time in Singapore lah. Hee....

What do I have to do? (IF I pass the training lah!)
1) "Open" door, TV, VCD, water feature, check equipments, boil tea etc.
2) "Open" PC and the various worksheets, programs to monitor appointments and customer details
3) Arrange booked appointments, take new appointments, take care of enquiries, attend to walk-ins, make reminder calls
4) Wash towels, wash cups, cut napkins, do data entry, take stock, do accounts
5) Collect payment for treatment (Yeah! I did my first nets and credit card payments today!)

I don't know if I'm really up to the task. The boss has high expectations of his receptionists. He say receptionists can help him get more business or chase business away.

I will try harder tomorrow. It's interesting to handle different customers each day. Or should I say, it's very challenging. The customers I met today are all very nice. I enjoyed my work. But of course, I will also meet unreasonable. I will then alot of tact and wisdom to handle them. After 6 years of desk-work, suddenly want me do frontline, I need re-learn and adjust to alot of things. Hee..hopefully by this week I can proudly tell you that I've graduated from the training.

Meanwhile, it's "How are you today? How may I help you?" (:

Nothing Like God's Timing

I dunno how many times "Praise God" I can say.

I just received a call from a company to start training tomolo - as a Manager's Assistant. Haha....the designation is very "power" hor? Only a glamour name for receptionist cum administrator. The miraculous thing is, I only sent in my resume this afternoon. The boss called me just minutes ago (sigh...Chinese boss lah...that's why work till 8pm).

Anyway, it's only training for the next few days. Then they will evaluate me and I can also decide if I want to stay on.

But really Thank God for this opportunity!

And the other thing is - Hubby also found a job today and he's starting work next week.

Talk about God's timing. (:

Shabu-Shabu

We went for dinner with OCF pple last night. Jonathon's leaving for Adelaide today - to pursue another 5 years in dentistry. Woah..


So we went to his favourite restaurant near Logan and had Wagyu Beef. Most of us had shabu-shabu. But Jonathon insisted on his 350-grams premium rump steak. Yum....


The Wagyu shabu shabu set

Mount Tambourine!

Last Friday was public holiday here - Australia Day.
So Louis drove me, hubby and Dawn up to Mt Tambourine for a day trip. It was a good trip! Thank God for the nice cool weather throughout the day and for a brother who is willing to take his time off to show us new sights of Queensland. See what we were up to.....

First they say "No Parking"

Then there is a "Husband and Non-Shopper" Parking

And not forgetting the "Kids' Parking

(see the signs in the photos if you dun catch it...hee..)

We chit-chat with a nice old lady who showed us how to weave wool into string

These are just some of the nice little shops along the shopping area

I really had the urge to buy this and put this infront of my door. I still cannot stand the culture here of walking around the (carpeted!!) house in shoes (regardless of the conditions they are in)

I simply fell in love with the cuckoo clocks here. But the smallest, simplest, cheapest one also need $30 plus. Not that expensive actually...but we did not buy one this time. Hubby promised we will get one next time we come out.

The pinochios here so ka-wa-ii!!!!

Why adults only? Because all the fudge contains liquor. What were you thinking of huh??

We went to a park for picnic lunch. Guess where the park is? At "Witches Falls"!! Hmm......witches always fall down here???

After lunch we went for a short winery tour. Went to 2 vineyards and a distillery. Not in season lah...the empty field you see behind us is where the grapes should be.

Just playing a fool here....

The distillery so nice right? Reminds me of "Alice in Wonderland"...

And we went to a goat cheese factory. Oooo...the smell. Very strong. Not my type....

I'm Back!

After such a long absence..me finally back in cyberspace.

For those of you who cared enuff to wonder where I went...for the past 3 weeks, we've been off-line coz settling our new internet connection. And yes, it took 3 weeks before we can see the yahoo homepage and listen to FM93.3 again today.

More updates coming soon! Hee....