4 years, 8 months, 1 week and 5 days later, I have left The Cheesecake Shop.
Along the way, there were many tears, laughter, sweat and blood. It was with mixed feelings that I handed back my key to the shop. I was happy to hand it back, doing so meant I’m moving on to greener pastures and moving on with life. At the same time, I felt sad cause that was the place that had sustained me over the years as a uni student. It had many memories attached to it.
I remember over the years I’ve experienced more than my share of obnoxious customers, pleasant customers and of course the whole robbery thing. If I could say that I’ve learnt something from working there, it has to be that I can take life’s beatings and still stand up tall.
I’ve met many many people at the shop over the years, I still laugh silently at how people keep saying names of cakes wrongly. Mississippi becomes Mitsubishi. I honestly don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t even name a cake Mitsubishi. Tiramisu becomes Timarisu. Profiterole becomes Prof cake. Oh, the good times when we would go to the preparation area and laugh ourselves silly at the customers’ orders.
I loved the Christmas season, we’d take so many orders and put away so many cakes the night before Christmas Eve. The neat freak in me comes out, trying to sort cakes into the times they will be picked up and the number of cakes we can fit into shelves and counting up the number of cakes to pack away. I liked looking at how full the coolroom was, with order tags stuck on cake boxes. I used to remember the customer’s name and order on Christmas eve, just cause I was the one who had packed away the cakes the night before. Having a very good memory helps in those times.
So I guess I’m officially unemployed at the moment. Being unemployed doesn’t feel too bad, just cause I know my next job is coming up. So now, I’ll have weekends free! I haven’t had weekends free in say 4 years, 8 months, 1 week and 5 days. I guess I’m about to fill my weekends with Christmas shopping and catching up with friends who have yet to fly off!
Today is the 29th of November 2008. Only 19 more days till the family comes! 
And yes, I’ve fixed the header for all browsers now and resized it and changed it for the upcoming Christmas season. Fixed the favicon too, so look out for the little cow picture at the side of your address bars now!
November 28th, 2008
9:39 pm
General
Due to wanting my blog to have a nice header, I’m redoing the header as well as reprogramming it to fit IE. So if you are reading this in IE7 and everything looks like I threw a magnifying glass over it, don’t fret. Just go use Firefox or Google Chrome since my theme and header works well there. Yes, I’m going to redo the header to fit the width but that’ll have to wait for a bit.
I haven’t started my job yet, but in my imagination I’m already planning of ways to spend the money 
This won’t be my first paycheque every but it’ll be my first paycheque working full time. I bet when I finally get paid, I’m going to be taking my payslip and giggling like an idiot at the office.
I’m at least a month and a half away from being paid my first full time paycheque. For convenience sake, let’s just call it my first pay. I’m in dire need of clothes to wear to work. Most of the clothes I have are really casual looking and I’ve made an astute observation: people at the office tend to wear t-shirts but always in block colour and never in prints. I’m not sure why that is the case but I’ve put down on my next shopping list to go get a few more T-shirts from Myer that are block colours. I’ve never been a block colour kinda person, but I guess I do block colours alright. Mainly I just wear prints cause it hides unwanted curves
Another item on my list is black pants, I’ve currently got something like 3 pairs of pants that I keep rotating. I think I need some grey slacks, cause I seem to wear at least black item per day. I’m wearing jeans tomorrow so it isn’t too bad since I don’t own a pair of black jeans. Go figure.
Another thing that I would put high on my shopping list would be a new mobile phone. Mine is still hanging in there by a thread, think it might die anytime soon. Though its a very hardy phone, I’ve dropped it a million times, scratched it, used it a lot and its still serving me. I guess I’m a bit sentimental with this phone, don’t want to trade up yet I think I need a new one with Bluetooth cause I can’t keep answering the phone while driving.
Somehow, I doubt my first pay would actually buy all these
A girl can dream, can’t she?
Since I’ve finished writing my exam paper, I’ve been feeling at a bit of a loss as to what to do after work. See, I don’t think prac is stressful, in fact I’m loving it. I’ve also accepted the fact that I’ll be doing these kinds of hours at work when I start there, so to me I’m doing the best that I can to finish this prac and then continue to give my best while working. Only difference to the situation is that I’ll be paid when I join as an employee.
Once again, I digress.
See, I’m now quite relaxed at home and thought to myself, “Hey, my blog is looking a bit boring. True, I’ve created a header for my blog but I’m too much of a techno nincompoop to put it up”. So there you have it, I’m asking for help to put in my header for my blog. Anyone able to help me?
And seeing that I’m really too free, or rather I thought I might blog about something fun and insane this time. See, I’ve been known to have good and bad days in terms of my hair and make up. Sunday was a good day, I had a nice summer dress on and I put on subtle make up. I went to work today sans make up cause I had a meeting at 7.30am and rushed out of the house to get to work on time. So I’ve washed my face, washed my hair and gotten ready for bed.
Yes, you got it. I did take a picture of myself with make up and nice clothes and put it next to one with err….less appealing circumstances. This is probably a woman’s worst nightmare to be caught on camera sans makeup and with a mask on her face or something.
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Yes, that is what I look like after I shower.
No wonder I’m still single LOL.
Well, I didn’t really have a shopping spree, more like grocery shopping spree. I went to Coles and I couldn’t help but buy things that were on sale! Admittedly, I did need stuff anyway but I got it at a cheaper than usual price. Somehow I remind myself of Suet and coincidentally there is such a thing called Suet in the supermarkets. I shall take a picture of it soon. Speaking on which, I saw a gal on Friday that looked exactly like Suet on Friday, I almost walked up to her to say hi. Thankfully I didn’t cause obviously its not Suet who is in USA.
I digress.
Grocery shopping is so fun! OMG, I feel like an aunty la walking down the aisles and looking for the cheapest bargain there. Eh, I got sunscreen for $2.99 ok? It’s damn cheap lo. Can’t blame me right I am constantly on the road for work and need to protect my poor arms which get burnt in the summer sun. I picked up cans of tuna for 98 cents and there are cans of baked beans for $1, which I’m going to buy tomorrow. Haha….I think right, if you dumped me in Coles I can go shop non stop. I feel like a housewife buying groceries. OK, sometimes while I shop, I pretend I’m on a limitless budget and just walk the aisles wishing I could buy everything I see. Yes, I have an over active imagination.
I think grocery shopping is quite therapeutic. I tend to focus on what to buy and what I can make with the things I can get off the shelves. I think sometimes I can take hours just doing the shopping, thinking and planning for lunches and dinners. I must be getting old.
When I woke up this morning after sleeping at 2am that morning itself, I was so tempted to crawl back into bed and get more sleep. Obviously I did not, I dragged myself out of bed, tried to print my stupid exam paper out but couldn’t so I rushed out of the house to make it to uni to print and hand in my exam paper. Rushed over to a worksite and then made it to the office by 11.15am. Not bad for the span of 3 hours’ work.
I was getting some work done on the computer when one of the people who interviewed me came along and asked if we could have a word in the office. Obviously I had one thing on my mind: the outcome of the Tuesday interview. I actually don’t remember the first thing he said to me but the next thing I remember was him shaking my hand and going, “Congrats. You’re now one of us”.
I think I was so gobsmacked I couldn’t say anything but “wow” and “thank you”. Yes, I was very lame at that point of time but I didn’t care anymore. I had secured my first paid full time job!! I think it’s just sort of hit me proper that I now am going to take off my student hat and put on the hat of an OT/employee. It’s so surreal. I won’t have to do any more assignments or pretend case studies. I actually work with people and see OT being put into action. I remember my managing director asking me what skills I could bring to the company and I said my OT skills and elaborated. I remember her commenting that this job is basically OT in action. I thought to myself, that is so very true! Although I don’t have the title OT after my name in my business card (yes, I get business cards!), I have to put my qualifications next to my name.
I think after 5 years of studying here in Australia, its now time to think about settling in and staying for good. I just realised over dinner with Russell, Michelle and Charmian that I have to get private insurance cover, settle my PR application, put in my police clearance, get OT registration, get certified by the COTRB and finish all my uni paperwork. So this is what the working life is like.
I’m really thankful to God and everybody that made my journey here in Australia such a successful one. I could not have done it on my own strength, but it is with God’s grace and mercy as well as the many people He put into my life that has paved the way to me getting a job even before I graduate. In this financial turmoil, getting jobs with lots of perks is not easy and I’m grateful beyond words.
Only 3 more weeks and 1 day and I have completed uni. I’ve got to settle my paperwork with the company, I’ve handed in copies of my driver’s licence and Working with Children Check. I’ve got to do my Police Clearance and present my passport and other minor paperwork and I’m all set. Its weird how it didn’t take that long.
I think I’ve babbled enough for tonight, I’m beginning to sound incoherent as I’m really tired but happy
It’s my last piece of assessment for OT 442.
It’s now 1.02am.
I have written 7 pages.
I have a 10 page limit.
I aim to finish by 2 am.
Someone please tell me I’m not insane.
Today I was in good spirits that I was going to face the panel of interviewers and be done with it. Little did I know that I would have such a whirlwind day. First of all, this stupid car on the road nearly crashed into me on Riverside Drive while I was merging lanes. I was in the left lane, but wanted to move to the left turning lane once it came up. Next thing I know this stupid car was merging lanes while I was merging lanes at the same time. So she was literally next to me, trying to take the spot that I had vacated while merging lanes. That probably was the stupidest thing to do and I was so annoyed. I tapped my brakes slightly with shock and lucky the car behind me was probably giving way to the lady and therefore did not crash into me. While I braked, I actually turned to look at the lady and she wasn’t even looking where she turned. Which ticked me off all the more, cause we were inches away from each other. I can still remember vividly her number plate: KMC 8 and she was driving a silver/gray Honda Civic, must be this year’s or last year’s model as it was the newer Civic. I was clearly not a happy camper by the time I got into work.
Got to work and caught up on paperwork and phone calls and documentation. Went through my midway evaluation and was alright. 30 minutes before my interview, I was having butterflies in my stomach. I said a silent prayer and went down to get the questions and sat in the lounge area to prepare. It was rather strange to be sitting there, considering everyone was going for lunch and was wondering what in the world I was doing there. So I had to explain myself a few times and hope they didn’t make a big fuss about it, which they didn’t so I was grateful for that. My supervisor was so nice, giving me tips and things like that to talk to them about. Come to think of it, if everything goes well, the people I’m working with now will officially be my work colleagues. It feels rather strange to think about it that way. Anyway, I don’t think I have the time to think about it. I still have to finish my exam paper and deal with my paperwork for migration and all sorts of things. Plus, results should be in by the end of the week so at least I’ll have a relaxing weekend.
I think some of you might know so far that I’ve managed to secure an interview with a panel at where I am doing prac at the moment. It is for the role that I am currently doing now as a student. I was told on Wednesday about the interview and I’ve submitted my CV to the manager for perusal. To be quiet honest, I’m actually quite calm about the whole thing and aiming to go in there and give it my all. After all if I do badly in the interview, it only contributes partially to their decision. They’ve seen how I’ve worked so far for 2-3 weeks and I think that will also count quite a bit. I haven’t told many people so far, just cause I want to keep a low profile about everything. It would suck if it didn’t work out.
I’m planning to read up on the role and the company over the weekend and finish my exam ASAP so I can concentrate on the interview, which I booked for 12.30pm on Tuesday. I’ve also got my midway evaluation with my supervisor that morning and I’ve got to complete that form before I meet with her. Suffice to say, I’ve got quite a busy weekend ahead. It’s also the last weekend in Perth for some of my friends in UWA after the long exam season. So I’ve blocked out Sunday to hang out with them a bit before I head back to work on Monday. I’ve got a long week ahead, and I do want to get things done before their deadlines so that I have my sanity intact at the end of all this.
