today is car spa day. sending the car for its spa around noon. then i’m lunching with h, and i wanna get home by 4 pm for a phone interview later. i probably need the spa more than my car though.

speaking of the phone.. i seriously suspect that something’s wrong with mine. these days the reception sucks, and i can’t connect to the 3g network for an extended duration. i didn’t think it would be a problem, but when calls keep getting cut off, i feel like slamming it to the ground. i think i’ve dropped it too many times and something came loose somewhere. but i really don’t feel like changing to a new phone now. enough of new things in my life at the moment. i rather stick to something i know well. so, i’ll stick to it for the time being. and even if i’m going to change my phone, it’s not going to be an iphone.

and i have something to say about the iphone. i really feel uneasy when i see kids get addicted to the iphone. 2 year olds can’t speak clearly but they can pronounce iphone well. isn’t that disturbing? anyway not all games and apps are created equal, and i think parents should be extra cautious when introducing the iphone/ipad to really young kids. i wonder if the phone deprives kids of other more”social” games, to the extent that they lose certain social skills along the way. even adults are glued to their iphones during gatherings, and i think it’s really creating a social problem.

This is the final week before the wedding! we’ve just put up the “double happiness” stickers around the house, and they do get people into the mood better. i think i will never forget how difficult the planning is.
i’ll be able to give good advice to friends who are getting married in future though.

I’ve been thinking about my new life though. How it will be different, and how it will stay the same. “same same but different”. I actually believe that me getting married and moving out of the house will improve relationships with my immediate family. At least there’s less friction, and there’s better appreciation of each other. I’m not moving to the States or UK, so it’s not that bad. Maybe I should finally pass them the link to my blog? haha.

the final countdown begins! my wedding banquet will be held next sunday. i’ve been really busy with the preparations, and i really hope that things will go smoothly on that day. i honestly can’t wait for it to be over. i want to relax and think about things that are absolutely not related to the wedding!

i just came back from an interview anyway. it’s the second interview for a small consulting firm. i wonder if i’ll be called back for the next round. there are 2 more rounds, if successful. the recruitment and selection process is getting tougher and tougher! i hope i’ll hear some good news soon. anyway they were telling me all about the long working hours and hard work, telling me to be mentally prepared and so on. they were expressing concerns about me being newly married, wondering how i’ll cope and the work life balance issue. i think i’ll manage fine if i like the job and the environment/culture. after all, i never expected myself to work from 9 to 5 and stop at that. be it consulting or research, both are killers when it comes to the working hours.

meanwhile h landed himself an interview next week too. i am so excited for him! because i really hope we can both start out next year great, so if he lands a job that he likes, i’ll be so happy.

so many things going on in my life concurrently! it has been like that for the past year actually. doing the masters, completing it, finding a new job, the ROM, the wedding banquet, the multiple customs and ceremonies to plan for and go through. i’m actually sick of the wedding part already haha (dragged on for more than 1 year), so i’m looking forward to its completion and i can finally move on to other exciting stuff. yeah!

I’ve started giving out my wedding invites, and although the task sounds simple enough, meeting everyone within such a short time frame really zaps all my energy away. It’s really nice to catch up with my friends, but it’s tiring at the same time. Even getting people to meet up is difficult enough. It will probably take me 2 to 3 more weeks to finish distributing all the cards.

Meanwhile I’ve been practicing my math. I think I’m alright with straight forward math problems, but I really suck at the data sufficiency questions. I don’t know why they love to ask us about number properties and not require us to solve for the solution! That’s NOT how the business world works! I’m quite low in confidence for that segment. Wish me goooooood luck. Exam is next tuesday!

First day in the grad room and I think it’s really nice! It’s bigger, has large windows and it feels like a more conducive place to study and work in. Too bad I’m almost done with my masters stuff. I’ll come back often to visit friends and study for my gmat and work on my thesis over the next month though.

I’m officially unemployed. Friday was my last day with the lab. That doesn’t mean that I’m free though. I’ve got my thesis reviews back, and now is the time for amendments. Actually, my markers and my supervisor all said that the thesis was really commendable and the flow was good. The 2nd marker posed a lot of questions on the methodologies though. He wanted to have all the technical details, which is quite beyond me at this point. I’ve asked my lab friends for help, and fortunately, they are the kindest people around. Meanwhile, I’ve gotta read fast and help J with her phd thesis. Not an easy job.

My GMAT exam is really coming soon. Gotta work harder and practice more over the next few days. I’ve got to distribute the wedding invites too. I’ve actually chosen to resign cos’ I’m too busy at this point. I hope I won’t choose to regret this decision. Because I’m still working on a paper for my ex-boss even though I’m not paid anymore.

Now I’m officially in the unknown territory. Out of job, and not sure if I should study further, or focus on working for the next couple of years. What should I work as? What should I study? Hmm.. I hope the answers will come to me very clearly soon.

because my boss claimed that she didn’t see my resignation letter. which i don’t believe at all. because 2 weeks ago my friend told me that my boss was commenting on the format of my resignation letter during their meeting! what a b****. I told her I need to take leave to study. Which is entirely normal, because I have many days of leave left. She said she will not approve them. I’ve never seen anyone as #%^*&*$#%# as her.

I was so annoyed by her I sent her a very long email on Friday morning to tell her what I think. I said it would be better if she gave clearer instructions so we can proceed quickly without repeated revisions. She replied and said this is the normal process and other people would keep editing things for her, perhaps up to 10 times or more, until she is happy. WTF! What kind of boss is this?

Shall not go into details about the emails. Because it will cause my blood pressure to rise again. Maybe I should copy and paste the entire thread over here someday. She really is the worst boss anyone can ever have.

but i can’t wait for it to come sooner! my to-do list outside work keeps growing…

my supervisor is really nice btw. i met him this morning and he said that if i need some income or job or whatever, i can speak to him anytime and he’ll see what he can do. i really appreciate his concerns. i told him that i’ll take a break, plan for my wedding, focus on the gmat, before i slowly think about what i should do in future. hopefully, i can either score very well for the gmat, or get a nice job early next year. wish me good luck.

some updates on h. h’s final ict for the year will commence next week. he’s still not happy about his current job, and i really hope that he’ll land a job that he likes very soon. he’s been through 2 phone interviews and 1 aptitude test so far (3 different companies), and i wanna remain positive and hope for the best. after all, if he lands a good job, he’ll be happier, and if the job pays well, i won’t be in a hurry to find a new job. haha. ok the last part of the statement is not very important.

my wedding banquet is about 3 months away! and i’ve not done much preparation… oh no

on a happier note, i talked to my boss this morning and told her that i have the intention of leaving by the end of october, because i need to study for my gmat and tend to other stuff. it went smoothly. i was expecting her to give me a ‘hard time’, but she was just very surprised. anyway, i told her i’ll help out with the assessments for as long as i could, so it will give her a lot more time to look for someone new. i’ll also write up a paper. 4 months here and i have a paper that can be submitted for publication. not a bad achievement i think.

h has an interview today. i really hope it’s a nice job and he’ll get it. because he’s really not coping well in his current job. he’s always tired, unhappy, and the job environment isn’t good also. i don’t want to see him like that in the long run. i hope we’ll both get something we really like by next year!

My new mac is here! I’m still amazed by how easy the setup was. I even managed to transfer several applications from my old mac to the new one just by copying and pasting. It’s incredible. I’m still not done with all the installations though. They told me to install after 7 days because anytime in between I can go down for a one to one exchange if there’s something wrong. But it doesn’t make sense. Anyway, i’ll do the updates bit by bit as I test out the computer. Hopefully, this will last me for at least 3 years