Cold Rainy Day

Once again, it is raining and windy in Auckland. I'm sitting here in the living room and I can hear the rain pummelling down against our window and the gusty wind playing with something down the road, tossing and turning it as it pleases. The day has turned dark as night and there seems to be no end.
The tranquillity of our apartment is juxtaposed with the chaos raging just beyond the walls.

At this point and time, I am deeply grateful that I don't have to go to work today and face walking through the torment just outside the door . (Thankfully I'll be picking up my hubby so he doesn't have to bear the torment either) :)

On the Move Again

Hi everyone,

This time next week, my hubby and I will be moving our things to our new flat. In 6 months (1 year for my hubby), I will have stayed in 3 flats in Auckland.

I'm excited and a bit worried about moving. Excited because we will be in a bigger place and also because my hubby's sister will be joining us :D (part of the reason for the move) I'm really looking forward to that because since I don't know many people in Auckland and especially since I don't have close friends here, I'm really looking forward to his sis coming. I'll finally have a chick flick/shopping/girl buddy in Auckland :D

Nevertheless, moving to a new place can also be worrying.

• Firstly, there is the moving all your belongings from A to B. 
• Secondly, there is all the cleaning at both place A and B. 
• Thirdly, there is the trying to settle in and get used to place B (which seems a little bit scarier than our current place :S hmmm not sure how that's going to work out with this scaredy cat - hope my hubby isn't going to hide around every corner waiting to scare me!).

I suppose point number three can happen over a period of time but points one and two have to happen by the next two weeks O_O still trying to figure out how that's going to work, especially since I have to fit in my profs between everything. Although we don't have all our belongings here in Auckland, the things that me and my hubby have here still amount to quite a lot.

Nevertheless, a new place equals a new beginning which (hopefully) equals better things are coming our way :)

One More Day

Tomorrow will be one of many landmark days.

By tomorrow, my husband and I will have been married for 6 months. It still seems a little surreal that we're married yet at the same time its as if its second nature, like it was meant to be from the beginning.

I know that my husband and I are in a solid relationship nevertheless, I'm excited yet worried about our future. In many ways it seems certain but also in many ways it is still very uncertain and because of this I get confused as scared. But then I suppose that's what life is - you live it, you take on things as they come. The upcoming chapters in your life are still unwritten and you have the opportunity to write it however you like.

So, hubby, if you're reading this, the first 6 months of the rest of our lives together is about to pass. It is the first of many of our anniversaries together :)

Notes

My Hubby and I have known each other for over 6 years now and of that time, we have been a couple for over 5 and a half year.

It is true that the longer you are with someone, the more comfortable you are and there is a lesser need to make the effort of surprising or doing the lovey dovey things since after you're married, your catch won't really slip away (that easily).

Nevertheless, my hubby left a wee note for me today. Although it's mainly to recommend that I do something, the fact that he wrote it down and stuck it on my laptop rather than just tell me brought a smile to my face and reminded me of the days when we were still just dating and giving each other written notes.

So all you guys out there - put in that little effort and leave a written note or message to your girl every now and then, even if its something small, and sign off with love. I'm sure it'll make her smile and brighten up her day :)

Home Alone

I think this is the very first time when I'm completely alone, home alone, where it is just me and the house.

My hubby is down in Christchurch for the national civil engineering conference.

Although I enjoy the solitude, it does feel a little lonely because there isn't someone here to talk to me if I wanted...sigh... I miss you honey...

My hubby mentioned a while ago that he's surprised that I haven't felt homesick. I think its mainly due to me having my hubby by my side and also because I know I'll be going down to Christchurch at the end of April. However, thinking back to Easter weekend, I think I had a spout of homesickness. After whinging about it, on Good Friday, me and my hubby went for a walk in the early evening. At the start, although I asked for the walk, I also felt a bit depressed. At the time, I couldn't explain why but after coming home and thinking about it, I think i was homesick. I missed how my hubby and I used to drive to Hagley Park and walk around the botanical garden and even play hide and seek. Being here is Auckland, it felt very foreign, especially since the walk to the park was a bit of a work out in itself. When we got to Auckland Domain, although it is nice, it's not Hagley Park... So there you have it, my first significant homesick moment.

I would like to add that despite being homesick. My hubby managed to cheer me up by playing one of his silly games - acorn war. Hubby, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I was all happy happy joy joy form the beginning of our walk but I did enjoy the whole experience :)

Upgrade

Just wanted to tell the world:

My hubby and I finally got a dining table for out wee home!!!

Tables are such simple wee structures but it's not until you have spent a month bending over a wee box to eat dinner and to do work that you truly appreciate having a table :)

Lesson: don't take your table for granted, take care of it and treat it well :)

Easter

Happy Easter everyone!

Perhaps it is induced by work but I haven't looked forward to Easter this much since I was a little kid. Despite not having an much chocolate/easter eggs to celebrate Easter with as I did as a child, that fact that I've got 4 whole days alone to my hubby where we can pretty much be stuck at the hips makes this a very good Easter. Although I would say, I wish some shops/malls were open today so that we can go out and shop around since the weather is so good.

Some exciting news I've received for this Easter is that my sister in law will be coming to NZ!!!! She'll be arriving in Auckland at the beginning of June. Can't wait!!! I'll finally have a chick flick/shopping buddy! YAY!! Got to prepare some stuff before she gets here though.

Bottom line: even after the good 4 days of holidays, there is something to look forward to to brighten up the upcoming (gloomy looking) months :D

P.S. The sad thing is that today, I found out that the Zen garden I really wanted to go to that I mentioned in a previous post can only be viewed BY APPOINTMENT..... WTF??!!!!! Stingy bastards - probably trying to make money out of those poor moneyless people who appreciates beautiful gardens (i.e. me). Sham on you!

Panda Eyes

Another LONG LONG day of work. SIGH.

Finally heading to bed now after a 7:45am start to my day.

Long Time No See

Hi everyone,

It's been quite a while since I lost made a post. Life has been HECTIC! After two weeks of work and one week of my Profs course, I'm already feeling swamped.... Need to buck up! Pretty much my last two weeks have been wake up, go to work, come home, eat, work, sleep and then replay.

Can't wait until Easter break! Although, according to my schedule, I still need to study over that weekend. SIGH.

My hubby and I are still trying to hunt down furniture for our wee home. Right now, we're targeting dining tables - WE REALLY NEED ONE - cos let me tell you this, sitting on the ground working from you computer which you sorta have to bend over slightly to use/read may seem fun at first but after a few weeks, you feel like you're ready for retirement.

We've been looking around for a while now but still haven't found "the one". Hopefully we'll have more luck soon.

Recently, I heard about a Zen garden in Auckland, I'm guessing its the one in Whitford. From the few pictures that I saw from my friend and her description, the place seems AMAZING! Can't wait to go and check it out with my hubby - a romantic stroll around a beautiful, serene, and massive garden. Perhaps it can be a weekend expedition?

Time to hit the hay now. Will try to post again soon :)

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

AT LAST!!

Our new bed has finally arrived today! I'm so excited! Looking forward to going to bed tonight!

For the past two and a half weeks, my hubby and I have been sleeping on the floor of our new apartment on top of two duvets. Although I'd say that it wasn't that bad, I still very glad that our new bed is here. Hopefully this will help with my insomnia!

It's Official

To be honest, I actually previously wrote about half of my intended post on my iPhone about a day ago but didn't manage to finish it. I saved it but for some reason, it has disappeared :(

As my hubby just said: This should teach me to not leave things halfway.

I can now say that I have officially landed my first law job and will be starting work next week on the 12th March. However, the position is only an internship at this stage and it is very much on the law firm's conditions. Oh well - will just have to work hard.

I would like to thank my hubby for being supportive and going on a shopping spree with me the weekend after hearing that I got the job so that I could get some work clothes :D Thanks honey!

To be honest, I'm quite excited about this job but at the same time, I'm also quite nervous and worried - mostly about how I'll perform on the job and what happens when the internship finishes. I suppose I just have to have hope and faith that things will turn out well and try my best to improve my employers.

Time to GANBATTE!!

New Job?

Today is a good, exciting, and somewhat scary day for me.

I have been applying for legal jobs for the past couple of weeks after being disheartened by receiving no reply from a firm that have given me an interview for my first potential job. Sadly, it has so far been unfruitful.

HOWEVER. This morning, after checking my emails, I received an email from the firm that had given me the interview. I could not believe it. Since it was quite early in the morning, I thought it was my tired mind playing tricks on me. I rubbed my eyes, calmed down, then read the email again, checking the email account, the sending details and the date. It's true - the firm really did email me back (after over a month since the interview - I thought they had forgotten about my application).

The email, sent last night, was to offer me an internship position at their law firm. My very first position at a law firm.

Feeling the excitement welling up inside me, I forwarded the email to my hubby to share the good news.

I have just sent a reply back to the firm and now I just have to wait for (hopefully) good news. FINGERS CROSSED!!

The next step will be to nail this internship so that I can land a (more) permanent position at the firm.

Look out world! Here I come!!

PS: lesson of the day: Always keep your hopes up, you never know when they'll be answered :)

New Apartment, New Home

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since my last post! So much has happened since then. My husband and I have now moved into our very own flat - the first "home" we will be sharing. We spent Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th of February moving our belongings over from our old place and I spent the following Monday to Thursday (20th - 23rd) cleaning the house. Part of the lack of posts was also due to the fact that we didn't have internet until the Thursday (23rd)

We have been searching for furniture as well over the past week. I never new that starting a new home can be so much of a mission. Furniture is expensive in the first place and then to find something that we both like, will use, and can fit into the flat can be somewhat of a nightmare... But I like to think that me and my wee hubby are doing just fine :)

Plus, the first significant piece of furniture my hubby bought was a TV!! (since he knows how much I like to watch TV :D)

The other thing I have learnt in the past week is that starting a family is also something very hard. Changing old habits are very hard and for some reason I'm finding it extremely hard. I have some really bad habits - shopping ones in particular - that desperately need to be changed to make my new life, as well as the life of my husband's easier. however, while I know this, I am still often consumed by the vicious sin of greed. The biggest wake up call for this came on Saturday the 25th where my husband and I got into a big argument over it. Although we didn't yelling at each other, seeing the look on my husband's face, that helplessness, in trying to make me understand that I need to change my demands and habits because there has been a change in circumstances was heartbreaking - I will never forget it. Therefore, Hubby, if you are reading this, I would like to say again that I am very sorry. I know that I am not the best wife in the world and I am slow in changing my habits but please be patient with me. I promise I will try harder to break (or at least limit to a great extent) this bad habit of mine. I hope that you will be there to help me along the way and say "no" to me to keep me on track.

Lesson: It is ok to want things and think about them but unless it is a necessity think about it once, then drop it. You don't need it and life would be so much brighter if you just move on with eyes set ahead instead of turning around to look again.

Thunderstorms

Auckland's weather forecast for today (according to Metservice) is thunderstorms. This may sound odd but possibly due to the rarity of being caught in a thunderstorm, I find them very interesting and exciting. There's just something about the day turning into night and hearing the thunder rumble followed by a flash of lightning that's almost attractive. Despite not being a "rain person", to me, a thunderstorm can be as exciting as snow (only it's not as fun to be outside).

However, I have yet to see the sky completely darken. Apart from a little spitting before, there is not a drop of rain and from what I can see from my window, the sky is clearing up, the sun is out and you can hear the cicadas chirping.

Oh well, you can't have something just because you want it (and that applies to many aspects of life).

Until the next thunderstorm. Perhaps it'll come tonight? Hmmm lets see...

Jobs

After days of applying to jobs, I've finally got a reply and just like last time, it's another rejection - and the rejection comes not from the firm but from the company who is advertising for them. SIGH.

Hmmm I'm starting to consider that Starbucks jobs quite seriously now. Even if it's not a long term job and it's not related to the career I want, at least it is a job and it'll at least bring in a little money so I don't have to sit and watch my savings continually decrease. Plus the perk of it is that it is sort of close to where my hubby works and maybe there'll be a chance that he'll walk in and grab a coffee :) hahahaha think all this job hunting is finally starting to make me go crazy.

People keep telling me that it took them a really long time and endless job applications for them to get their job but there only appears to be 1-2 new jobs that I found since I first started this active-everyday-job-hunt. I'm slowly getting to the point where I'll just have to sit and wait for replies...

Well let's hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

Money

There's a Chinese saying that goes 有钱不是万能 (having money doesn't make everything possible). However, if a person does not have money, then there are many more things that are not possible (沒钱就万万不能).

Such is life. Money doesn't make the world go round but it does give that push to kick start it off.

For the last few weeks I've been looking for a job although admittedly it's really been these few days in which I have been extra active and to date I have applied to 1 dozen jobs. Of these, I got one interview and now, three weeks after the interview, there is still no contact. I also got one rejection since the firm has already found someone by the time I sent in my application. With the rest of the applications, there has been no contact at all. not even an email to say that the firm has received my application.

The thing is, I don't mind being rejected. But the fact that the firm does not even put in the effort to reject is depressing. It makes me ask myself why I am even still applying for jobs when it just seems like I'm wasting my time and effort.

Last night I saw that a Starbucks was hiring. With the luck I'd been having with my job applications, it made me wonder if Starbucks would actually reply sooner than these 'professionals' that I'm sending my CV to.

To add to the matter, my hubby and I just found a flat of our own and will be moving out in the coming week but having been staying at a fully furnished place, moving to the new place means that there are many essentials that we'll need to buy. This brings us right back to the issue of money, or the lack of it.

Very honestly, there has been times when I think about taking my chances at the casino or buying a Lotto ticket but the fact is, every time those thoughts come along, I can hear my conscience asking me if I actually want to throw away my hard earned money to people who have created these games where the odds are so against me that the chances of me winning anything is next to nothing.

Oh well.

Lesson of the day: keep your head down and keep applying for jobs. As William Edward Hickson once said: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again". There is nothing for free in this world, everything comes at a price. Therefore, rather than waste your money on gambling, create money the old fashioned way - work for it and earn it.

Valentines Day

Today is Valentines day.

I remember when I was little and whenever Valentines day came around I used to wish that I had someone special to give me flowers. A single red rose just seemed so romantic. Then there was one Valentines day while we were in Primary school and my older brother received a valentines gift - flowers - from an old lady who used to come by our shop. That made me think twice about receiving flowers. Hahaha

Nevertheless, a single red rose can bring a big smile to any girl's face, no matter how it is presented. My first rose is from my current husband which he gave me on the first Valentines after we met and he presented it to me while it was still budding, in a half drunk can of Lift Plus. Although I laughed at the sight of it, it made me delighted to have received it nonetheless.

Happy Valentines Day everyone :)