Drifting

Michael came over in the wee hours of the morning as I had to finish up packing and then head off to the airport.

Kevin, AJ and Michael dressed me for the wedding as I have no idea what to wear for my very first one (I've been to my cousin's when I was 8 but I only went to half the wedding ceremony because we're not really loved on my dad's side, I didn't even go to the reception!).

Afterwards, I watched River Monsters - its quite interesting but its obvious Jeremy Wade is in his own nightmarish world.

I then left for the airport, stopping by at McDonalds for a quick breakfast. I was SO happy to see that it was still the normal day time menu! I had no idea breakfast menu started at 5 am and I'm not a big fan of the brekky menu.

My quarter pounder was SO fresh and the chips were so salty that I exclaimed in joy! I got on the plane and I don't even remember taking off because I had already fell asleep.

I woke up to see that we were already in the air but only 20 minutes in. After that I couldn't sleep again but I did that stupid embarrassing head nodding thing. I was sitting in the aisle so I bet people were laughing at me.

Time ticked over slowly but we finally landed. Mum picked me up with Simba in the car. Simba was going CRAZY to see me! I'm glad he still remembers me!

I went home and slept for 5 hours.
My room

I woke up and mum took me for a check up at the dentist. He highlighted again how my orthodontist screwed up my teeth. Did I tell you the story? I had braces but the orthodontist didn't do anything but scam us. He scammed all the customers as he wasn't properly licensed and just zapped insurances. He also concreted a retainer on my bottom teeth but it doesn't do anything.

So this dentist tried to make it a little better and put more concrete behind my teeth. It feels stupid now though. He took a mould of my teeth and decided to get me a retainer for the top as its shifting. I wish I could have braces all over again with a good orthodontist. Sigh.

We went and checked out mum's new house that she's building. I gotta say that I'm curious as to how we could afford anything of the sort but she hates me peeping into her business. To be honest, I don't love it but it has utilised space well.

Peter was outside my house by the time we came back, he was trying to do a dodgy patch up job to his car by not even soldering wires and just duck taping them. We went on our way to the track to go drifting.

IT WAS PRETTY EXHILIRATING - we spun out once (grass and dirt got into my eye) and then on the fifth run we spun out and the car died. The starter motor cable fell out and so I had to get out and push. One of the track boys came and helped and we moved it to the side then tried to push start it.

All these bogan guys that were at the track were like "YEAH HANDS UP FOR THE GIRL FOR HELPING OUT - SO HOT!" and I just couldn't stop laughing. I should've totally taken my helmet off and then swung my hair in slow motion.

Seeing as we couldn't turn it on again we had to keep it running so we headed off to dinner with my mum and Father Chan (priest who is a family friend haha!). We had to find parking on a hill for Peter to push start.

We ate Japanese BBQ and OH MY GOLLY the wagyu beef was soooo rich and buttery. The ox tongue was beautiful and the salmon, fresh. I got so full - but we all know I've got a second stomach of dessert.

So I had green tea ice cream but it was so good that I ordered round 2 as well.

Strawberry Swirl

I worked with no sleep behind me and it was terrible. When it was busy my delirious mode kicked in and I did everything swiftly.

But when it was quiet, I stared into nothingness with my mouth gaped open and hands in my apron pocket doing nothing.

Thankfully time went quickly in the third hour, and then I stayed in the office to try and teach the owners how to do some of their own business. I taught them how to use the manager's register, functions, e-mails, keys, staff... it just drives me crazy how they have survived this long without trying to learn a little themselves!

I went and bought Peter 2 t-shirts as he liked a store here and wanted more, then I went to change the crazy expensive jacket that my mum bought me. I told her I didn't need it and she got a little mad.

She told me I could use it as an investment when I started working in the corporate world, but I told her I can make that investment when that happens but for now that jacket will just sit slumped in the corner of my room collecting dust. I think I'm the only one in my family who realizes that we need to be tight with money and that we won't always get help from others. It was very sweet of her anyway, I know she was only looking out for me against the Melbourne wind.

I went home and just crashed to sleep. I woke up and totally forgot about dinner with AJ so we were going to just go down the street. But no, Korean BBQ intercepted my mind so I called and made a booking. It was so delicious, and it was good to go back to our first date (we came here the first time we went out together).

Last time the manager gave us lollipops, this time he gave us ice cream on the house. It is so obvious he likes us because he beckoned to our every call.

We went to the tram stop and this drunk lady was celebrating her birthday. We taught her how to use a hair straightener and it was hilarious. She was absolutely drunk.

Kevin came over to apologise but to be honest, I didn't want to see him. He was holding my dress for the wedding hostage and I had to pack my suitcase for my flight tomorrow.

I tried hanging out with him for a bit but just wanted my own time so he went next door to AJ. I know he's my best friend but he's losing understanding of me. Or maybe I'm just shoving him away a little because I've realised he's been overly clingy, possessive and seeking my attention as of late. Sigh. He would be so upset if he read this, or maybe he will.

Or is it just PMS?

Fridge

The only thing I remember from this day was drama and cleaning up a fridge.

Declan and Jana left and as much as I loved seeing everyone visit me - its very tiring juggling work, rest and play at once. I woke up late to go eat lunch with Quinton's family who are visiting too.

Then I popped into the office, did a few admin things and then headed downstairs to clean the fridge. I've been so stressed because the owners are going nuts without any of the senior staff here this week.

We all have plans so I've been writing a check list of EVERYTHING that needs to be done. Its so difficult because we normally just do it in a robotic manner without thinking. So to write small things such as, check toilets - its annoying!

I've also had to try and organize more trials and UGH I can't even be bothered typing about it anymore. Just understand that I am super stressed and so sick of being paid less than the employees (apparently because I have more hours it counteracts my low pay - stingy bastards!) but expected to behave like a manager.

And the drama - I don't want to type anything but seriously, everyone needs to stop treating my life like a soap opera. Shit stir your own life and butt out of mine.

I don't care if you're a best friend - don't use it as an excuse to just do whatever you think is best for me without my knowledge. Hassling me about getting my stuff out of my ex's place who is a mate is just the same as having to get my stuff out of your place now. And to disrespect and trample people's homes without permission was inconsiderate. And to think that I will make time for you when shit hits the ceiling even though before hand I already said I was super busy was irritating. Especially the 20 missed calls.

Nah, maybe I'm just angry because you keep calling me things I hate and you think its funny. Grow up.

To the second person, don't use my friends to complete your favours. I can do things myself too by the way.

And addressed to the third person - conversations with you just circle so be mature and gulp it down. Stop clinging, stop expecting and stop whining. Be an adult. I'm tired of being the learning curve.

Aquarium

I went to work early in the morning, and mum came at lunch for another coffee. She raved on about my work's coffee all weekend so I told her to come have one last one.
Real hammerhead frozen..

My boss was so happy! Afterwards, I had yum cha again. This time Jana and Declan joined.

Josh also joined as he wanted to meet up with me. Josh is the one getting married this weekend, its so weird because I met him when I was 12 so he's always been the '19-year-old-Josh' but he hasn't been 19 for a long time.

It was good to see him, I then ducked into the office and surprisingly finished everything quite quickly. Mum went back home to Brisbane!
Freddo Frog

I had no idea that these were cuttlefish.. imagine tucking into that!

I decided to go to the Aquarium as my mum had dogged me - I dragged Michael with me because we were both looking forward to taking my mum. I loved the aquarium! So many weird looking things I had never heard of or seen!

I want to do the shark diving they have there! I think...
Slumber party

They even had penguins and surprisingly they poo so much that the snow was more green than white. And has anyone ever seen shark eggs? They are so STRANGE! They look like Chinese dried herb medicines!
Tea party

I asked one of the presenters what their qualifications were because I was curious! He told me that he was a marine biologist and a scuba instructor. I'm just keeping my mind open. I knew I was developing a love for the sea so maybe I might find a life direction in this genre. So far, I don't really think so though.
He never let go of the wall

Ironically, I felt like fish after the Aquarium so we went to the fish & chips store opposite AJ's work. I knew she was going to finish up soon so I thought it would be a good idea. I ate a quarter of a calamari because I missed it so much but it made me feel sick again. I must learn my lesson. I remember I used to be able to eat calamari and my allergies were only restricted by crustaceans and shellfish.
Can you see him (freaky)?

I bought tea towels for work then we went home.
Sea dragon adapting to change

Don't you love the bottom of Sting rays? The nose and mouth makes them look super happy!

Kobe Jones

I woke up nice and early to take my mum to the Aquarium as I had promised her! I was super excited to go as well to only hear that she woke up even earlier and beat me to the Aquarium.

She went herself even though I told her we were going to go! We didn't know what to do so I thought I'd take her to the east side, we asked a favour from Michael and we drove to Glen Waverly for lunch. We saw a steam train! Those things are so beautiful and loud!

Afterwards I took her to the massive Chadstone shopping centre, she made me go buy a lint brush and shoe polish as apparently all my coats are hairy and my shoes dirty.

We all had coffee because we were exhausted. I even had a weak one too which hit me like crazy.

I strolled by a lolly shop and bought my favourite Wonka Nerd Rope!

We then met up with AJ and Kevin to go eat at Kobe Jones at Docklands. Everyone except me hadn't been to the Eureka tower before so I took them there to check out the spectacular view.
We all looked on as Michael took his first bite into sashimi.

I wish I wasn't allergic to seafood, I even ate a sliver of crab and it hit me! And you know what? I love green tea so much that I can distinguish what is a good green tea ice cream - and that restaurant needs to improve!
I spent many a moments staring out at the sea, with darkness it becomes black and the fine line between sky and sea gets blurred out. But this was broken up by a strange set of lights that looked like Christmas but was in fact a pathway for boats at night. So I spent ages watching boats get guided by the green and red lights. I never knew there were lights in the sea haha!

Kevin wanted to go to Brunettis again then we all called it a night.

Seasons Provedore

My memory is totally wiped out about what happened on Saturday...

But mum invited some of my friends out for dinner so we enjoyed an Italian meal on Lygon Street because all the restaurants we wanted to go to were booked out.

Of course, afterwards we went to Brunettis for macaroons. YUM! It was Michael's first go at Brunetti and my reviews lived up to their expectations, he thought they were amazing!

I then had to run off to work. I don't remember how work went because I just zombie through. I had a few trials this week and I tried to market the upstairs a bit so I made cocktail shots to sell for $5.

I wrote it in huge letters on the blackboard and told the band to promote it. It went pretty crazy! I made about $1400 on just those shots which is quite a lot for the tiny upstairs bar and excluded all other drinks.

One of the bartenders treated me like absolute crap and disrespected my position - introducing himself as the manager to all the trials and trying to get the manager's code on the registers from me. We all know he needs it so he can open up the till and snoop into how much we are making, and be sneaky with money too. As much of a hard worker he is, I'm trying to change the place and I can't have people I don't trust on anymore. So the owners and I decided its time to let him go next week... I feel bad.

Chris, Jana and Declan came to my work while I was cleaning up completely inebriated. We all went home and two of them crashed on the couch, the other in another couch sitting up.. crazy!

Jerky

I woke up to meet mum and we went to my work so the ultimate coffee fiend (mummy) can judge the coffee.

Mum loved it, it only took my boss about 10 minutes though. He was trying to perfect it but mum sculled it down with joy in her eyes. She LOVED the flavour of the beans. I know my boss made up his own with Arabic and Indian beans.

After my bosses mucking around and meeting my mother (look at my lady boss pretend she has leek pubes =.=) we left to go to China Town.

We had Yum Cha for lunch then mum went to the Chinese Jerky store and bought about 4kg of jerky and 1kg of dried plums and prunes... ew.

Then I took mum to an Asian DVD/CD store and she stocked up on movies and dramas. We also went to a department store, I bought myself a wool & cashmere coat because it was about time I protected myself against the Melbourne cold.

I had to go back home so I could get ready for work. Nothing interesting happened at work, except for the handsome doorman who I have talked about many a times (I said he was my boss but he was lying to me, then he said manager but I took over his role now) quit on the spot. That was intriguing. We won't really miss a recently married man who sleazes around anyway.
Busker mimicking a train ride

OMG the world is so small though, I found out he is married to my friend's sister and I feel so awkward because I know SO many stories about him that could get him into trouble. I don't want to upset the newlyweds though but aw man, I wish she knew.

I went to my next work as bottle manager and just trotted through. Afterwards, I had about 5 drinks in a row so I got hit pretty hard. Friends just decided to one after the other buy me drinks and I gotta admit I've been a little too stressed so I let them.

Michael and Darren took me home to have to walk me up the stairs and carry all my stuff (I had like 2 coats and boxes with me). They are both so kind though.

I fell asleep almost instantly - remembering some of my rowdy behaviour like talking to a taxi driver at the traffic lights. I'm pretty sure I made his night though.

Tut Tut

We woke up and headed to the Melbourne Museum to catch the Tutankhamen exhibit. After this exhibition is finished, all the artifacts gets returned to Egypt so its quite a once in a life time experience for a lot of people.

I've never seen anything like it before, and it was way too difficult to comprehend that these objects existed for longer than 2000 years!

I couldn't take any photos but it was so interesting to see all the objects that you hear about, especially the coffins and the cases they kept the organs in. I even saw coffins for fetuses.

There were many school children running around - they were annoying but it was interesting to hear their remarks. I over heard a group of primary school boys arguing over what happens after death. One boy said we turned into dust and gets spritzed up into the air.

No matter how old you are though, death remains unanswerable.

Afterwards we went to my mum's hotel to pick her up as she had arrived! We headed to Bridge Road - my mum's favourite shopping district. We all had lunch together and then split into pairs to attack the shops in our own way.

I helped mum with her clothes and Annette and Michael came past as they worked near by. Mum and I continued down the street where we then ran into Jana and Declan.

By then we were all hungry so we stopped by Nandos for dinner. Chris came and joined to drop us all off and get ready for the theatre. I had bought tickets to go see Love Never Dies - Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to Phantom of the Opera.

It was a spectacular performance, props to the opera singers with their huge diaphragms. I was particularly surprised to see a smaller than usual midget who used her small lungs to belt out a beautiful voice.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is one talented bugger.
The lead male - obviously the Phantom (or Mr. Y) had such a charming voice, each time he sang I felt so mesmerised.

Afterwards, we stopped by Starbucks to refuel on hot chocolates and then went home.

Jana & Dec

Jana & Declan arrived today - that's my sister and her boyfriend.
My memory has been totally wiped out on what I did that day.. I'm sorry its taken me so long but its hard to find time to blog when I had a lot of work and people after people coming down to visit me!

Oh! Michael came over I think, and AJ, Michael and I just had a huge tea party session to talk about stuff. Then Chris came to pick me up to get Jana and Declan from the airport.

Volcanic Ash

Remember how Peter's flight got cancelled on the way down? Well, it got cancelled on the Monday for the way up - and then they also cancelled his Tuesday flight.

I had no idea because I was at work so he just ended up buying a Qantas ticket to get back home as he had missed way too much of work already to accommodate for this volcanic ash that's sweeping over from Chile.

I finished work and met up with the owner as we had to do a few job interviews. The first one was good, we're giving him a trial but aw, the second one was so adorable - it was evident he had no social skills which is a huge shame.

I learned a lot from the owner, I wanted to know how he'd conduct the interview even though I knew he didn't like the second one at all.

I was really really pissed off that day due to both works. The coffee boss who rents off the owner harrowed into me about something the owners were doing because I was the closest thing to the owners so I think it felt good for him to abuse me about it. He was even getting angry at his fiancee but later on he calmed down and apologised to both of us, telling me that its not my fault at all - that its not my business and authority to run the joint how I want it.
How to successfully photo bomb

I then went over to my other job on Friday night's office to go have a meeting with one of my bosses. On the way there I found out that my sister's flights got cancelled so I was a little annoyed at that too. I was starting to get worried that the theatre tickets and Tutankanhem museum tickets would go wasted too.

I had the meeting with the boss, one of the girls who recently stepped up to a role just under me was ratting me out saying I don't do anything and if she asked me for help I wouldn't help her, and that she has no idea what my role is even though I'm her senior. I was SO angry because I had no idea she'd say anything like that! AND JUST THAT LAST WEEK I was serving champagne like I was in their role, when I'm not and I didn't care. I also constantly asked all the girls if they are okay and particularly told that girl if she needed help to just come outside and grab me.

I see her side of the story though, I am outside so I can't be patrolling as well as I could be - so I know if they're in trouble or not. But that's why I make it clear to them that they just have to speak out, which the other girls do. I'll have a chat to her, and my opinion of her hasn't changed because I can see how she could perceive it and plus, the boss could just be saying it more brutally than how it was really said.
Successfully photo bombing #2

We then had a discussion about his management, and I told him that he was lacking in a feminine touch - that they can't just make the girls wear tight shirts and angel halos so everyone knows that they're the bottle girls. They've got to be respectful because we don't want to brand the girls. I also complained about a guy who overstepped my role by saying he was my boss and was angry at me each week because he'd ask for me to give him my walkie talkie because he didn't get one - or saying that it was his role to tell me what to do instead of vice versa. I didn't mind so I listened to him sometimes but I've got clarification from my boss now that I have authority.

Michael came and picked me up and took me home. He bummed around while he waited for two girls to get ready - poor bugger. AJ and I fussed about as we chose what to wear, I think AJ changed clothes 4 times and I changed stockings and jackets 3 times. In the end I think, why did it take us so long to choose clothes when we're wearing black everything?

We headed over to Crown Casino and up to the Fusion club. Its quite a nice club but was still quiet, I guess we did go there early. I drank a little too quick and I was the first one to feel it. Even though it was a Tuesday night, I work Friday and Saturdays so I never get to party without it being involved with work so I was excited.

I ended up getting pretty trolleyed and danced like a can of spaghetti on the dance floor. When I told Carlos that he was like, HOW DOES A CAN OF SPAGHETTI DANCE? And I told him when you tip it out of the can and it lands on the plate!

Michael and I decided that our night's mission was to photo bomb people's photos! I was pretty successful and I definitely won the competition - I don't think Michael got in any! I even video bombed.

Michael, Timmy, AJ and I went back downstairs to eat KFC and then went back up for round 2. AJ, Mike and I even went to the photo booths and took photos but Timmy stole them so at the end of the night we took another set. HAHAHAHA! Timmy gave AJ 20 bucks though to keep the first set of photos (we don't know why, he's not in it).

I had a really fun night! I'm so happy!