30 July 2005 — Yay! Finally my last day at GNC! Even though I’m just a casual staff, it has taken me more than a month to quit the place! Sometimes being good at your job, hardworking and responsible can be a real disadvantage. Especially if you’re like me, weak and feeble, dunno how to say “NO”. Mark, my manager, just refuses to let me go, keep gei-gei, tu tu tu. And even now I fear it’s not final. He has oredi hinted to me that he might still need me next Friday?!? I can feel it, GNC is just gonna leach onto me forever…
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28 July 2005 — Haha! Before you go thinking it’s some scary disease, (and yes, I’m talking about you 老爸) bruxism, fancy as it may sound, is just benign teeth grinding. EXCEPT if you’re sleeping next to the person who’s got it. For the last few months, I have been jolted from my sleep by this “grinding” noise in the middle of the night, but because it seemed to stop the moment I wake, at first I thought I was too tired and just imagining things. Especially since when I look at William, he’s sound asleep, no indication that he’s heard it too.

As time passed, the noise got more and more frequent, louder and louder, and more and more prolonged, so prolonged that I could get startled, wake up, stare at William for a good minute and he’s STILL doing it. Last night, it got to the point that I started getting worried + it was keeping me awake. Have you heard it? It’s actually QUITE loud! So this morning I quickly googled “teeth grinding” to learn more about it.

Turns out it’s got a fancy schmancy name like “bruxism“. The bad news: there’s no cure. The good news: it’s mostly caused by stress. Thus reducing stress and learning to relax should rectify the problem. Oh poor Billie, he’s been working too hard. Ok, ok, I guess that’s my cue to start doing the housework, before he becomes “bo-geh”!

24 July 2005 — When I told my dad about my scary 被鬼压 incident, he seriously concluded:

1. There was a spider with 9 legs crawling right above me on the ceiling
2. I’m suffering from adrenal exhaustion. “That’s why when you’re very tired, never sleep on your back.”

or if you happen to have had that experience in a hotel room
3. It’s because “the ghost with the big head” has occupied the room while it was vacant, and you came in and lie on the bed in the same position as “he”. So the remedy? Shift the bed slightly, and for good measure, pray to the four corners of the hotel room.

19 July 2005 — Sumie so sweet! Not only did she give Amy a silver pendant for her birthday, she ended up giving me one too. Always nice to receive presents out of the blue doncha think? They’re the best! THANK YOU SUMIE!!! I love my chain!

see heart-shaped somemore! Sumie likes me

Sumie & Lucy (Caz’s dog)

26 July 2005 — Wow! What a coincidence! Imagine my surprise yesterday when I found out that Amy, my closest classmate (together with Sumie) of 3.5 years turns out to have the same surname as myself. With her Vietnamese Chinese heritage, her surname is “Huynh”, and me, with my Singaporean Hokkien background, I have the surname “Wee”. But it turns out that in Chinese character, both our surnames turned out to be 黄! (for those who can’t read Chinese, it means “yellow” or “royal”) Isn’t that amazing? Mebbe centuries ago, we both stemmed from the same family in some village in China?!?

Sumie then translated the rest of Amy’s Chinese name 玉美 into Japanese, and it’s “Tamami”. Tamami!? So cute right? I also wanted a cute Jap name so asked Sumie to quickly decipher mine. Sadly, there’s no 莹 character in Kanji, only got 贞, which Maiko (Sumie’s daughter) gleefully informed me is SADAKO! Wah lao! The Ring’s Sadako? So scary!!! Not cute at all!

26 July 2005 - For a while there, I was getting complacent again with regards to possible terrorist activities in Sydney. But with the recent bombings in London, slowly but surely one begins to feel the rising unease in the general population and can’t help but be affected. The “word” that’s going around is that with US first, and UK second, the next target is bound to be OZ, and if so, it’s bound to be Sydney (no point bombing 不起眼的 ulu places like Alice Springs right?!?), and if so, it’s bound to be the Harbour Bridge, and if so, it’s bound to be a suicide bomber aboard the train while crossing the bridge.

Yikes! Imagine the trepidation I thus felt yesterday taking the train to Bondi Junction — have to cross the bridge. I protected myself with Archangel Michael’s blue ray. Heng ah! Made it! But wait! Have to change at Town Hall station to get on the Eastern Suburbs line to Bondi. Town Hall? Shucks! It’s only one of the 2 busiest city stations — prime b#*bing material… CHOI! and worse the platform from which I had to change the train is 2 levels underground! Man… every minute of the 20 minutes I was there was sheer terror. Felt so trapped, so claustrophobic. Can’t breathe… I know I shouldn’t invite these sort of negative energy and I did try to think happy thoughts, but very hard leh…

And Johnnie Howard is further sending troops to Afghanistan?!? Sigh… another reason to leave Sydney soon.

23 & 24 July 2005 — Wow, we are totally Japped-out this weekend. Juju last night and Ryo’s for dinner just now. But who’s complaining? We luurve Japanese food, could probably eat it everyday.

Ok, so we begin with Juju. We’ve only been hearing about it for forever! More renowned than its food perhaps is its infamous long queues. We called at around 4+, and already were told that yes, they can give us a table at 7pm Provided we leave by 8.30. Well, alright why not we thought. And cause we absolutely love his company, we invited Sean to be our “special guest” for the night. Picked him up at St Leonards, looking FABulous as always, and off we went! (I love a man who accessorises.)
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23 July 2005 - Whoa! Last night I had one of those scary terror attacks again, you know, the kind where you lie there wanting to move, but is immobilised, and wanting to scream out to your partner who’s just sleeping next to you, but can’t even open your mouth, and even if you could, no sound comes out. And you have to summon up your very last ounce of strength to just speak out… scary…
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21 July 2005 - I’m so glad I went to work today. Cause who should walk by but Jacinta!!! I must have squealed when I saw her. Yes, and this time I remembered to ask her for her name straight away. Not so blur like the last time, chatted on for half hour at least before she left, but still didn’t know her name. I was hoping to see her before I left GNC for good, and it turns out she has been looking for me too.

So who’s Jacinta? She was originally “Mike’s customer” but she came in one day when he wasn’t around and I ended up serving her. We hit it off like a house on fire! Strange how easily Singaporeans and Malaysians click when we’re away from home. There was an instant “attraction”, and we rattled on about our lives as if we’ve been friends for forever. And there was something else that united us — hee hee, we both understood how important it is to lose weight before going home. So tragic when people from home gasp and tell you you’re so fat whenever they see you. No, better maintain the illusion that we have effortlessly maintained our weight despite years of eating pizza and burgers.

So yes, this time we’ve exchanged numbers, and though I hardly know her, I get this feeling that I’m really going to like her. Yay! Always nice to meet a new kaki, gawd knows I haven’t had much luck there. Friends yes, but a real kaki-kaki is so hard to come by here. Ivy was the closest thing, but then she went home!!! William says the way I go on about Jacinta, you’d think I was in love!?! Hmm… 原来 GNC is a place for me to pick up unsuspecting 小妹妹?!?

17 July 2005 — haha, such an irony, I have actually just attended my very first seminar after just graduating! Hmm… how can like dat? Not living up to the Singaporean kiasu rep, am I? So what’s the seminar on? It’s on “Endometriosis, PCOS & Uterine Fibroids/Menorrhagia” aka all the typical female nasties. Held by MediHerb, and presented by Francesca Naish and Angela Hywood. Naish is the founder of The Jocelyn Centre, reputed to be Sydney’s number one natural fertility clinic. It’s also known for exploiting Nature Care students as free labour, making them slog for hours dispensing herbs and conducting yucky urine tests in exchange for some measly observation hours. Yes, myself included. And would you believe it, while they don’t pay the students a dime for working in the dispensary, clients are charged a whopping $700 for the first 2 consultations. It’s quite tragic really, I’ve seen couples cower in shock when they hear the price. To be fair, their success rate is supposedly quite high, so if you’re simultaneously loaded and barren, you may want to call on them.
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