simlihong
All these words encompass me.
Good times seem to pass so quickly,
Bad times seem to last forever,
So why do we spend so much time lengthening our time,
when time is relative and abstract.
Time can be our greatest enemy or our greatest friend.
It all depends on how we use it to our advantage.
So spend it, manage it, invest in it.
Because what we need is not more time
But to make the most of our time.
Some people say a birthday is just like an ordinary day and that it’s no big deal if you don’t celebrate it. But if everyday is just an ordinary day, wouldn’t our life just be an ordinary one?
Birthdays are usually a day whom I find out who genuinely cares about me and a day in which I silently give thanks for being blessed with good friends. Even though it’s not my birthday yet, I decided to celebrate one week earlier so that we can avoid the public holiday surcharge at restaurants (Naomi’s advice, we’re such accountants :P) and friends can go off with their long weekend Easter break plans.
This is my little space where I can give thanks for the presents and thoughtful gestures!:-
- Shu Ling- who rushed all the way from Geelong, on her last day of work placement. Back to her home to collect her toolkit(aka makeup set), to my house to help beautify me.
- Yi-Ping, Chi Chun & Florence for the Le Petite Gateau passionfruit cake. I had 2 slices. enough said!
- Ching Ching and Jon for the pretty and thoughtful Typo journal. Just what I needed to pen my random thoughts and ideas! It even has ziplock bag components to stash random letters and postcards :D
- Charis who gave me a very thoughtful photo decorative thing and printed photo of both us :) She also very kindly lent me her camera as the official birthday-photos camera. Her inclination to photos that night? purely coincidental, I presume?
- Naomi for the dress that is SO me. It’s toga and it’s red (close friends would yell “That dress is so you!”)
- Those who made an effort to attend or had to travel a fair bit from various suburbs (Jeremy, Eu Wing, Kun Quan, Ryan Han)
Received some international love as well:-
- My homies (Jacqueline and Edwina) who being their efficient-self, sent me an early Nike outfit which I’m planning to wear for Run4Kids!
- Sebrina who got her Melbourne-visiting mum to pass me something close to heart- a pretty leather wallet with a hint of pink!
As for yesterday’s dinner? Wasn’t exactly how I imagined my birthday dinner to be because plans never turn out exactly the way you want it to be but I know that few years down the road, I would remember the 23rd birthday I spent at Melbourne beside Yarra river with loved ones and that’s all that matters.
candysu802 Asks:
smilili Said:
Hi Ziyen,
So nice of you to drop by my tumblr! I see you’ve graduated around the same time as me. First of all, good on you for taking on the challenge of securing a job in Australia.
I apologize for my delay in response. I wanted to make sure I have time to sit down and write a proper post for you. There’re so many things I would like to share on what I’ve learnt from the past year but I guess I’ll narrow it down to what you can do for now.
Assuming that you’re based in Melbourne, the first thing you should do now is attend as many job fairs as you can as it is currently job fair season.
Job Fair tips
-
prepare a general (so that you can give it to any firm) resume and print copies of it to pass to the recruiters.
-
target 5 firms to do a bit of research on so that you have something to catch the recruiter’s attention on. (e.g NAB may have some Women Initiative campaign and you can use it as a conversation starter)
-
memorize 3 selling points that differentiate you from others. (e.g accounting-related seminar you’ve attended, awards you’ve won)
-
look out for people with authority to hire you (i.e not graduates, managers who delegate hiring work to HR). The person to look out for is the HR manager; ask the other employees “Who’s the HR manager”
Most of all, keep in mind that the goal at the job fair is to catch the recruiter’s attention, pass them your resume, and ultimately to lock in an interview.
I have more to tell you but it’s past lunch time now :( However, you just gave me a brilliant idea, I think I’ll write a blog post on that topic. Also, feel free to ask me any questions :) I’ll try my best to answer them. Good luck!
Cheers,
Li Hong.
The term “struggling artist”. Often heard, rarely seen. Keep all beautiful things alive!
Sometimes the most beautiful things are a work in progress.
When people say going abroad opens doors to new experiences, I never thought that would include celebrating a festival that is close to home at a foreign country. This year’s the first time I celebrated cny at a country where it isn’t a priority. In fact, it could have come and gone without me realising if it weren’t for the call I received from my mother to remind me to wish my dad. Usually, I would be reminded by the cny decorations in shopping malls two weeks beforehand.
I’m also never one to feel extremely homesick but the mere mention of reunion dinner and gambling sessions was enough to make me wish someone would invent inexpensive teleportation already.
So how did I celebrate? It was thanks to the kindness of friends that I got to dull my homesickness. Kim and Josiah invited me to the CNY festival at Box Hill, the suburb where you’ll see more chinese walking down the streets than Australians. Got my healthy dose of chineseness with…
- overpriced dim sims
- chinese karaoke stall with jay chou songs
- chinese girl performing lady gaga
- lion dance
The night ended with a visit to Amber’s place a bunch of acquiantances-turned-friends with the help of our friendly socialites- Moscato and Vodka. The hilarious part was when someone claimed he’s got a PHD- PrettyHugeDingDong. Of course he said dingdong… I’m pretty sure.
Another kind friend was Yi-Ping, who invited me for a very chinese new year dinner in which her masterchef dad prepared 8 dishes for guests. Heck, I even wore my cheongsam, usually I only wear them fancy open houses/dinners. So I did get my dose of gambling with Yi-Ping’s uncle claiming I’m a fighter because I’m damn kiasu. I did win that game in the end haha.
Moral of the day is enjoy every moment because there’s always someone out there (aka me) wishing she had a proper reunion dinner, gambling sessions and tons of yummy biscuits to gobble.
May the dragon year bring you that extra bit of luck required to make this your best year yet :)
As a coffee lover, I simply love the coffee quotes at Villa and Hut kafe.
E=Mc2 : Energy= Morning coffee x 2
With enough coffee, I could rule the world
Coffee class @ Sensory Lab Cafe.
That summer day @ South Melbourne Beach.
Technically I’m on unpaid leave.
Because my new job starts on 14th November and two weeks is too short and it’s unethical to get some job and then quit after 2 weeks, right?
Funny how the dots connect. Just a couple weeks ago I was depressed and stressed, pulling my hair out, trying to get out of work rut I’m in by scheduling multiple interviews and juggling my CPA studies. It’s true when they say the turning point is when you REALLY feel like giving up but didn’t. Of course, one can argue that some battles are not worth fighting and we have to be wise enough to be aware of that but we’ll leave that debate alone, shall we?
And now, I’m a full-fledged bum. Today marks a week of bumming. Let’s recap the life of a bum.
Day 1
Kicked start my holidays with an accidental 10km jog around Albert Park.
Accidental because it was my first time at Albert Park and jogging around the park seemed like a good idea at first. Half an hour later, I was thinking “Shit. What a big lake.” Of course I could turn around at that time but I was already half-way through.
Day 2
Caught up with the forever sweet Sara Kang who will be returning to tanah tumpahnya darahku really soon. Conversations comprise of the usual Working at Aus vs. Malaysia.
Ate @ Darac Cafe, A’Beckett Street. Can never go wrong with korean food @ Melbourne.
Day 3
- Quick catch-up with Yi Ping @ Dead Man’s before she starts work. Pardon our morning faces. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a casual there so it’s kinda funny to see my manager’s and colleagues’ faces when they see me again. Their faces look like they’re saying “This girl’s crazy, who comes to visit on non-working days?!” but the food and coffee is yummy! and it’s so near my house.
- Lunch with my recruiter, the one who never lost faith in me and has relentlessly set me up for interviews. She’s Australian so Dim Sum @ Shark Fin House seemed appropriate :) Had lotsa fun explaining to her about har kao, siew mai and tau fu fah.
- Coffee class @ Sensory Lab
Everyone knows I’m a coffee addict so it’s about time I learned how to make myself a good cup of coffee with the coffee machine I got for my 22nd birthday (still eternally grateful for that). What better way to do so than to get another coffee addict along, my homie Jacqueline Tan.
Left: It actually looked like a ear (or half-hearted hurhur geddit) at first, but the barrista added the other side so voila! The first coffee art I made in the class.
A far cry from the first ever coffee art I made with Zhihan as the teacher (right)
Day 4
- Attended a book signing event.
Always wanted to check out a book signing event. Doesn’t matter which author, was just curious what do people talk about during these events. Even though she’s not some author on how we’re all going to die because of the icebergs/ozone layer/overpopulation, it was interesting to listen to Zoe Foster’s story. Her beauty book was a spin-off from her beauty blog which was manifested to satisfy her need to share the overwhelming information she gathered as a Beauty Editor at Cosmopolitan Magazine. As a blogger, I can vouch for that because that’s usually the reason why I blog, I just want to have a place where I can share information, ideas, junk thoughts looming in my head etc.
Oh and there was a free beauty workshop there too where I learnt how to apply red lippie and bronzer properly!
Day 5
It was the weekend and a high of 30 degrees. “To the beach!”, we say!
First stop: Reputed as the best ice-cream in Victoria.
Tried their famous flavour- Hokey Pokey and it was creamy like how ice-cream should be. I think their creaminess is their specialty.
and that folks. is how to be a bum in 5 days :)
