W.O.R.K

I have started work! Whee! This week is the start of my 3rd week at work. I know... it doesn't seem to be 'new' news anymore but I was keeping it till I had all the wedding stuff posted. For some reason I wanted to keep the timeline intact on the blog. :)

Anyway, before the wedding whenever Alex and I have conversations about spending money, I always made references to "I hope I have a job by the time the Olympic games begin."

At the start of August I was starting to get concerned about my applications because I had spoken to other 'immigrants' who are now permanent residents and they had told me stories about how they started off in Australia. It seemed like the common denominator was the fact that finding the initial job was very tough since:-
1. Our degrees were not from Australia
2. Mainly because our resumes tend to get put away when the employers realise that our references were all international.
References may not be important in Penang because the interview is where we get judged but in Australia, without references, the application means nothing.

I had sent several resumes out but I had not gotten any good news. That was until Aug 8. Yes... if you haven't caught on, it was 08.08.08. The day the Olympic games began. How amazing is that? God is good :) I got an email from the hospital that I could begin work on Monday. It was quick and I was happy!

I had submitted my resume through Alex about 3 weeks back (this is the same place where Alex works) and his boss was ok with my hire. I quickly agreed to start as this could give me the Australian references I needed should I decide to look for another job. The best thing about this arrangement is that my boss is aware that I am still on the lookout for opportunities and has said I can choose to leave just so long as I give sufficient notice. This was very important as I didn't want my resignation to cause any problems for Alex since he works there as well.

I had some reservations about the job but looking at it positively, its a good move to at least have my foot in the door. The hospital is a goverment hospital and its only a 10 minute walk from our house! Goverment hospital means the pay is better than a private one. With that mentioned, I did get a call about another job at a private hospital the Monday I started but the pay was less than the one at the hospital so I thanked the lady and said if the current job doesn't work out, I hope to be able to call her.

So to cut the story short, I'm now in the middle of my third week at the hospital. My current learning curve needs me to move around the hospital getting specimens in and making sure the reports are done correctly. Soon, I will be put on the specimen bench, getting specimens passed into the other labs followed by data collection. Till then, I hope to regal you guys with interesting stories of things that happen in the hospital. I have a few already!

I don't know how things will go yet and how long I will be at this place. I am thankful this door has been opened to me and I will stick with this until the next door is open. Even though the current job is not as 'glamourous' as what I used to do in Penang, having money coming in and having to not go out of my mind with boredom at home is always a good thing. The whole housewife scenario was scaring me a little :p

Since I work at the hospital, the stories I will soon post most likely will be disturbing or disgusting. Hence I will be categorizing each story as such. I currently only have 2 categories and will add more should there be more variety in the events I encounter.

* Disgusting

* Disturbing

Till then.... thanks for praying for me and I look forward to the next phase of my life as God has planned for me. I am now a working woman! Never thought I would be excited about that!

cheryl

Wedding: Hong Kong

We left for Hong Kong on the 16th of July. Right before we left, I got myself a haircut! So yes ladies... I did do the haircut that I said I would. Here it is :)


Not very shortla... I didn't want to go through the phase where hair sticks out at the nape.


Arrived at Hong Kong in the evening. Picture was taken from the bus on the way to our hotel. We stayed 5 nights at the Ibis Hotel. It was a new hotel with a great view of the harbour and close proximity to the MTR trains. My only advice to anyone who would like to stay at the Ibis, bring a mid sized luggage. There was barely any walking space in the room. It was approximately 2 feet of space around 3 sides of the bed, excluding the wall behind the headboard. Hence, not much space for luggage.

To paint a clearer picture, once in the shower, we had to take care to not move too much when soaping because... your elbow may hit the water gauge and your shower water would be turned off. I had shampoo in my hair when the water suddenly cut off. I then thought " Oh crap...no water can't be good " when I realised it was my elbow that had hit the gauge, effectively turning the water off. Also, its Hong Kong! Space..what space?



Next morning we had breakfast in a typical Hong Kong coffeeshop called the "Cha chan theng" in Cantonese. As in TVB movies, our menu came as Set A/B/C/D. Unfortunately, everything was written in Chinese so my in laws had to translate for me. Good thing I understand Cantonese!





I took pictures at different MTR stops because I wanted to create a collage of photos with them. Here are some of the stations I captured.





The picture below is rather interesting. In Hong Kong, when one needs to apply for a day pass into China, the administration office needs some passport photos from the applicant. Being very efficient, they had a DIY passport booth in the office itself where applicants pay, step into the booths for their picture, collect it immediately and proceed with their application! Sure beats our Malaysian way of going to FujiFilm or some other studio to have it done huh?


What is a Hong Kong trip without pictures of roadside food?



On a 'Ding Ding' the Hong Kong electric double decker train


The electric train tracks running through the middle of a street, surrounded by shops and flats


Stopping for a quick shot on a busy street. So obviously a tourist!


Hong Kong Times Square in the background


Introducing.... Oscar the trophy winning dog! He is a Samoyed, a celebrity dog and has won many trophies in competitions. He belongs to Alex's cousins. Ain't he a beauty? So white, so furry and so big!



We had another wedding dinner in Hong Kong, this time a small one for Alex's direct family on his dad's side.



View of Hong Kong island from the Kowloon side. We were visiting the 'Arena of Stars'



What is the 'Arena of Stars' without a statue of Bruce Lee?


If you look real hard you will see that this handprint was made by our fellow Malaysian Michele Yeoh.


More views..



A maintenance worker updating the paint work on the hand prints.


Alex being a director for the day


What is the 'Arena of Stars' without a hand print of Jackie Chan - the big brother of the Hong Kong acting industry? :p


A giant sized replica of the Beijing Olympic torch being given a place of honor right across the other Hong Kong landmark, the Exhibition Center (designed to look like a turtle-in the background)


At the Ladies Market!


I wanted to experience the street food in Hong Kong namely the 'Dai Pai Tong' food and it was fantastic that we did dinner there one night. So happy... The food was yummy and I'm told that many of these places have closed down over the years plus the one we ate at that night was one among the 3 left. They need licences to open such places and once the current licence expires, the Hong Kong goverment would not renew the license so these places are slowly closing down. Its sad I think. Sure this place does not look visually appealing but the food is great and its somewhat a culture and inheritance of the local people that should be kept alive for the next generation.



The next day we headed out to Lantau Island. We wanted to ride on the newly completed Ngong Ping 360 cable car ride, starting our ride from Tung Chung into the island. The ride took about 25 minutes and it gave us fantastic views of the sea, the airport and the pristine beauty of untouched nature in Hong Kong which is rare. The authorities are doing all they kind to preserve nature here that when they built this cable car attraction, they used donkeys as mode of transport to immitate the natural conditions of the island as much as they can.






There was a hiking trail from one side of the island to the other. From our ride, we could see some people doing the climb. This is a picture of the steps they built to help the climb


Pristine hills


At the end of the ride, just as the cable car pulls into the station, there is a toy monkey holding on to a camera. The camera automatically flashes to take a picture of the occupants in the cable car. If you are prepared for it, you may get a nice picture like the one of us below :) This was thanks to Alex who gave us a 2 second warning to smile before the flash hit us. Hehe... pretty good picture hey? Well if you forget and miss it, don't worry there is another toy monkey on your trip down, just before you pull into the Tung Chung station.


The buildings at the top of Lantau Island look nice and 'chinese-y'



We ate lunch and then subsequently had dessert at this yummy place called Honeymoon Dessert.


Our Mango dessert with sago, mango chunks and pomelo bits


This place also had this very yummy durian dessert. So rich, creamy and yummy! Just writing about this is making me crave it so badly



More views from the cable car



Look careful and hard at this picture. Take a guess at what this is. The specks that you see are actually the bent backs of villagers, taking advantage of the low tide picking cockles off the sea bed.


The family met again for dinner on our last night in Hong Kong. In summary, it was a great trip. Even though I have been to Hong Kong twice before this, during this trip I managed to experience a little more of the local side of things.
Pros: Great food! :)
Cons: I put on some weight in Hong Kong :(




cheryl