by Kristine | May 16, 2014 | Working Woman
As the title will suggest, I’m finally gainfully employed! I managed to score an informal chat with a potential employer on yesterday and next thing I know, I’m being asked to fill in paperwork & induction forms for a Monday start. I am truly thankful for the job as I’ve been sitting at home, doing nothing for most of the time for the longest time and it has really started to take its toll on me. The job is not the best of things, but it definitely is a step in the right direction and the pay is not too bad. There are worse things that could happen I’m sure.
At the moment, I’ve got a bit of first day nerves and just want to go in and have a squizz at what I will be doing. From what I understand, it is a bit of data entry along with matching documents and ensuring compliance to the client’s documents and verifying things. It is rather vague but an opportunity is an opportunity. It is a step into the records management field, which is pretty awesome looking on my resume. Only downside is that it is casual work till end of September, maybe till the end of the year before being rotated if there are projects available. Am looking forward to finishing my Grad Dip & then fully throwing myself into library work when it is all done.
On the bright side of all this, is the opportunity to get some #ootd shots & to try on new looks! I will be working in the city which is rather dangerous when it comes to shopping. I’ve been really good for the past year or so, I think I deserve to splurge a little every now & then. Plus being Asian, I’ve already written up a list of things I will reward myself with, plus a budget to stick to. Can’t say I’m not prepared! 🙂
by Kristine | May 9, 2014 | Super Secret Kristine Project
I just had an interview for a part time position at my local library yesterday. I’m going to tentatively say that it went well, I don’t want to jinx the whole thing. After the interview, I ended up at the local regional museum, just so I could get out for a bit. I love museums to bits! Was really interesting to learn about the local history in my area and how the area came to be what it is today. I also ended up buying a cow shopping bag from the museum, just to add to my ever growing collection of cows 🙂
Anyway, after a bit of thought with the whole unemployment thing and the way the state and federal budget is going, I set myself a goal for a Super Secret Kristine Project to keep myself busy while looking for more work plus who knows, this might evolve into something and take on a life of its own. I’m hoping anyway.
Not giving out any details, but starting to project has gotten me motivated to blog more & to throw myself into this new goal. As an Occupational Therapist by trade, having no occupation at the moment is really throwing me off kilter. When I went to the optometrist the other day to get my eyes tested, the optometrist asked what I do for a living & it was a bit awkward to explain my situation. I didn’t want to say unemployed, so I used my fallback strategy of what I used to do & now I’m looking for other work. Beating around the bush isn’t exactly my thing, so it threw me a bit. This kind of is how the idea of the project started. I’ve had ideas in my head for a while, but no real push or drive to get things done. No time better than now, right?
Anyway, I thought I’d write that down somewhere so that I can look back & see the exact day I decided to take my future into my own hands & do something about it. Wish me luck!
by Kristine | Apr 27, 2014 | Eternal Student, Working Woman
Some of you might know that I’m a qualified Occupational Therapist (OT) but have never worked in a hospital or traditional OT role since I graduated 5 years ago. I fell into my previous job with a Disability Employment Service as I did my prac there and loved the job so much, that I never left. It wasn’t your traditional OT role, but I did enjoy the OT aspects of the role which included researching new equipment for clients and assisting them with obtaining funding for it. By the time I left, my traditional rehab type OT skills were non-existent, shall we say.
In my final year at work, I took the plunge and seriously explored library work as an alternative career. Why? Cause Matt made it look so enticing and to be honest, I’m a book nerd. Hey, I was always told off for reading at the table and actually tried to run my own library at home. Surely that was a sign? Anyway, it took me about 6 months to run the idea through before actually taking the plunge to start a Graduate Diploma in Information and Library Studies. I’m in my second semester (just over halfway through!) and I’m loving it. Ok, maybe I’m not loving all the assignment and essay parts of it all, but I’m enjoying that I’m being stimulated intellectually (oh, the irony!) and have goals to work towards.
I suppose it is quite tough moving from one career to another and I can attest to that. I’m currently unemployed and looking for work mainly in libraries as a library officer. Starting from the bottom, yo! I actually don’t mind it. Some people have the impression that I’m just settling into whatever job I can find, but honestly I love it. When I completed my 3 week prac, I was over the moon with what library officers to. There was little to no stress and pay was higher than my previous position (if you don’t look at the car and petrol part). I’ve put in some applications to libraries and hoping to hear back from them. I’ve also put in some applications for non-library roles, which are actually higher paying, but I’ll have to see.
Changing careers in your late 20s isn’t the easiest thing. But I figured, if I’m not happy where I am, I should do something to change it. I might not make the most money or be a millionaire by the time I’m 30, but I’ll be happy. And I think that’s the most important variable in this all. Plus, since I won’t be so stressed, I’d have time to pursue hobbies and things I like doing, rather than having sleepless nights thinking about things I need to do at the office or worrying about how my clients or their families might hate me and blame me for what’s happened to their kid. My health cannot take that kind of a lifestyle anymore. I’d rather be happy and do the things I love.
by Kristine | Apr 18, 2014 | Eternal Student
I must admit, I’m a really bad student when it comes to writing assignments. I always end up leaving it right up till the last minute & then stressing out while writing the bloody paper. Today’s assignment is no different in this arena.
I’ve got an assignment to write on the topic of empowerment, how staff can be empowered in an information service workplace and if empowerment can be a useful HR tool. Truth be told, it probably is a very exciting topic in itself. I just don’t like writing papers on topics like theses & then have to find at least 8 scholarly articles to base my arguments upon. Abstract concepts like this doesn’t sit well with my style of analytical writing or brain. Somehow I just find it very difficult to put pen to paper (so to speak) when trying to explain and argue an abstract point.
As such, my procrastination plan today was:
- Nap
- Write some words
- Watch TV
- Write some more words
- Rinse and repeat till midnight when my essay is due
So far, I’ve fiddled with my computer updating it to Windows 8.1 and tried to fix a glitch where my computer has refused to let me play Minecraft: Attack of the B Team due to something with Java, my graphics card and something called a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION. Updating everything didn’t even make the damn thing work. Anyway, I digress.
I’m 123 words into my 2000 (+/- 10%) word essay. I’ve got about 7 hours left. I suppose it is about time to actually get started properly…
by Kristine | Apr 17, 2014 | Eternal Student, Musings
As the title suggests, I always have trouble with what I blog & if I blog at all. I constantly struggle with the balance of how much about my life I should publish online versus I want to document my life and the happenings so that when I grow old, I can flip through my blog and have a glimpse of what I was at that particular age. At uni, I thought I’d have more time to blog when I finished uni as I was always either caught up with assignments or desperately trying to finish up my assignments or maintaining my sanity while working. After I graduated, I thought I’d have time to blog as I didn’t have to chase down uni deadlines and be bogged down by how much I have to work to be able to survive. That’s didn’t really change, work took over & became the be all & end all of things. It was as if I didn’t know how to do anything apart from study or work.
5 years post uni and unemployed, you’d think I’d have more time or mojo to blog, but somehow that hasn’t happened. I was always caught up in the notion that there is always a perfect time later down the track to get things down. Eg: I’ll blog after uni as I’d have more time to dedicate to it. Or I’ll wait till such and such month to do something as the weather or whatever variable is perfect for it. It has taken a long time to eventually learn that there are no perfect times to do things. Like the cliched saying goes, time and tide waits for no man. There really isn’t a perfect time to do things, you make the best of the situation you are in and you grab a hold of your dreams tight and get down to it.
Not working has certainly made me mull in my thoughts a bit more and that isn’t always the best thing when you have an imagination as active as mine. I’ve been putting in applications for jobs and just waiting to hear back from things, but the waiting around is driving me up the wall. There is only so many TV shows that I can watch, only so many blogs I can read and only so many times I can go on Facebook before I go bonkers. Thankfully I’ve still got uni, which is keeping me busy enough to focus on the bigger picture and what I want to achieve in life. Although, I still complain about assignments and procrastinate to some level 😛
I am hoping to find some semblance to how much of my life I share online & how much I keep to myself. I don’t think that struggle with ever go away, but as long as I have a say in what I put out & sway more to the conservative side of things, I think I’ll be just fine 🙂
by Kristine | Apr 3, 2014 | Lists, Musings
This is getting a bit old with the revamping & removing of previous posts, but I had my reasons for removing quite a large chunk of my blog lately. I suppose this should really be called Kristinesays 3.0 haha. In all honesty, this feels like a slate being wiped clean & I don’t quite care at this moment if I’ve got a following on this blog or not. This is my tiny space in the big world wide web & I’m going to claim this space as my own & write as I feel like. Sure, some things will still remain private for my eyes only as I’ve struggled to draw appropriate boundaries on what it is I write or how much of myself I expose online. As I’m studying to become a librarian and information professional, it is really important to me that I have limits to what I put down. All the views published on my blog are my own and do not reflect my employer(s), past, present or future. For now, this will be a place where I document my life as it goes along.
I’ve had a bit of a brain wave & figured that since I like to write lists all the time & cannot live without lists, what better way for my blog to be! A giant collection of lists. It’s a bit weird, but for me it works wonders that my brain is able to process what I’ve got planned for each day & what I have achieved by the end of the day. It took me nearly 3 years at work to discover that I work well with lists, go figure.
For the first official list this time, I figured that since I’m hungry, what better list than the foods I can’t live without. Even though I come from an Asian background, I love me my Western food. I grew up with Asian-fied versions of dishes like spaghetti bolognese (it had bits of carrot & beef mince in it) or pork chops (made with tomato, onion & corn flour to thicken the sauce – was actually pretty good). If there was a Western dish that we watched on TV, it was almost guaranteed that dad made an Asian version of it. As a result, I’ve made up my own spaghetti bolognese recipe (I’ll post it here one day) & altered it to suit my taste buds. Pasta is something that I absolutely love & can eat day in & day out.
Another food that I couldn’t quite live without is rice. I live up to my Asian roots. I could happily eat fried rice, rice with soup, rice porridge, rice with other dishes, anything with rice pretty much. Such a cliche I am! It’s something satisfying about eating rice that just makes me keep coming back!
To be honest, there really isn’t much else that I couldn’t live without. I say this now, but I’m sure something else might crop up later on 😛
What foods could you not live without?
by Kristine | Feb 13, 2014 | Musings
I read somewhere on the good old Internet about how a girl posted up a picture & a thing that she was grateful for, for 365 days. Not sure which article it was or where it was published, but it got me to thinking and evaluating things that have been happening in the past year or so for me. I know I made some New Year’s Resolutions last year, some of which I’ve achieved and others not so much.
Now is a good time as any to make some resolutions or goals for 2014. I’ve never been a huge resolution fan, I’d rather look at them as some goals to achieve and guide me for the year. I hope to review them in detail at the end of the year to see what I’ve achieved & look back at what life was in the year 2014.
First thing that I would like to achieve is to write more often here & document things that are happening in life so that I have some sort of memory of what went on. I know with life, study & all sorts of things, blogging daily won’t be something that can be achieved, but I would like to increase my writing frequency to document the big events in life.
Second thing that I would like to implement with this blog is to be thankful for at least 1 thing each day, although I might not post daily. With the things that go on in day to day life, it is sometimes easy to forget to be thankful for the little things in life. And it’s the little things in life that make life so colourful & interesting.
Thirdly, I would like to take more pictures each day. I have put this down last year too, but think this is probably an ongoing thing as I would like to improve my photography skills. Sometimes I think I’m just too lazy to whip out my camera or phone & I miss things, which is something that I don’t want to happen anymore. Learning to be more spontaneous with things & life will definitely help with this.
Lastly but not by any means the least, I would like to look at delving deeper into my hobbies, more so cooking and baking, and to see if there are any business opportunities in Melbourne to do with these. This one is pretty close to my heart as I’ve been wanting to embark on a business to do with either cooking or baking and would like to see some stuff happening in terms of that. I’ve put some ideas on hold due to personal reasons and the Melbourne move, but am now putting it out there so that I can hold myself accountable to it all.
On a side note, a few other things that I would like to achieve in the short term is to secure a job prior to the Melbourne move, complete my 3 week prac (starts next week, eek!!), finish my Graduate Diploma in Information & Library Studies, as well as settle well into Melbourne. I work best by setting small goals each day & working through that. It has taken me nearly 28 years to figure out how to understand my body is telling me, but I am taking it day by day & learning to love myself & life a bit more each day 🙂
by Kristine | Jan 12, 2013 | Challenges, Project Vegetarianism
I must say, this has been a bit of a slight fail. I was going really well on day 5 of the challenge until I accidentally ate a piece of salami yesterday. It actually took me about an hour to realise what I had done.
I had a 4pm appointment with a client of mine who always forgets, and I expected him to forget to turn up again. So, I agreed to come around to drinks after work which started at 4pm. Next thing I know, I got a phone call from reception saying that my client has actually turned up. So I went to tell the person who was organising the food about it, and let them know I’ll be at drinks about 5pm after my appointment. She was dishing up some salami and crackers. I was hungry and grabbed the salami while talking to her and ate the bloody thing. I hadn’t even realised till after when I stared at the cheese plate after my appointment and was contemplating what to eat. Lo and behold, I had consumed meat. Bah.
So, as part of the challenge I now have to start blogging for 7 days straight or else Matt will hijack my Twitter account for 7 days. I initially was planning to stick out the rest of my challenge till Sunday, but writing this post has made me really crave some form of meat again. Call me cruel or ignorant, but I will still continue eating meat like I did before. I guess the thing I will be changing is to actually add more veggies to my diet and possibly go vegetarian once a week just in support of Matt. I think my digestive system will revolt at meat being introduced to it once again after 5 days, but I think that’s a price I’m willing to pay.
So, what other challenges would you like to see me or Matt do? Leave a comment!
by Kristine | Jan 9, 2013 | Challenges, Project Vegetarianism
Since Matt became a vegetarian this year, I’ve decided to go on a 7 day challenge just to see what its like. I did try it for a week a few years ago, but failed at day 6 when I ate a bit of sashimi for dinner. Thought I’d give it a go again this time round just to see what its like again. Mind you, I’m the sort of person who craves meat & has actually eaten a whole roast chicken on its own in one sitting just cause I was hungry. I’m not sure how I’ll fare but its worth a try. This time there’s a bet going on with whether I can do this or not. If I manage to go 7 days (12am Monday – 12am Monday) without meat, I get to pick a place & Matt will have to take me there. And if I fail this, I was given the choice of having to blog every day for a week or no Xbox for a month. Needless to say that I’m going with blogging every day 😛 And should I fail that too, I have to give up my Twitter account to Matt for a week & he gets to hijack. Needless to say, its a pretty big incentive for me to ace this challenge 🙂
Day 1 was pretty easy to see the least, I had slept in and was only starting work at 11.45am yesterday so I had some instant noodles with egg in there for brunch. Didn’t feel too bad as I’m used to eating that for meals or snacks. Later that night, Matt & I traipsed to the local curry place. Usually I have either the curry chicken or butter chicken with rice. But seeeing as I had just started the 7 day challenge, I had garlic naan with some lentil curry. I must admit, I am a bit of a fan of that curry. I first ate something like that when we were in Melbourne in November so I was quite used to it. Though, the next day my digestive system rioted as the curry had butter & cream in it. I’ve recently developed a intolerance to lactose, though I can take small amounts of it at, so it isn’t that big a deal.
Day 2 was slightly harder as I had to carefully ponder my options of food for the day. I had cous cous for lunch and dinner was at the local Japanese place where I had edamame beans, agedashi tofu & seaweed udon. I was full from the food, but there was a certain satisfaction to it that was missing.
Day 3. Now this has got to be a bit of an epic day. I bought one of those San Remo pasta snack for 1 things (Mac & Cheese is still vegetarian, I checked) and decided to have that for breakfast at work. I didn’t exactly follow instructions as I was at work & really couldn’t be bothered measuring out liquid. Bad bad idea. I managed to burn that in the microwave. Heh. Last time I’ll do that again. I ended up having brunch while at a team meeting – scrambled eggs on toast with some baked beans. Yummy & filling but naturally my stomach is rioting again. I forgot scrambled eggs have dairy in them *facepalm* I’m actually beginning to question how lactose intolerant I am. If I can’t have dairy, my options are pretty limited for food & will have to become part vegan for the next few days till this challenge finishes!
All in all, I must say not eating meat isn’t as bad as it sounds. I’ve almost reached the halfway point and I must say that I can live with being vegetarian a few days a week. It’s the thought of never having meat again that scares me. My body craves meat every so often & I can’t say no to it. Guess its all about balance, hey? 🙂
by Kristine | Jan 6, 2013 | Musings
Happy New Year!! I guess this post is a little late, but as the saying goes, better late than never rings pretty true here.
I must admit, I did abandon this blog for a little bit and have been missing it. But hauling out my ancient laptop & waiting for it to boot up is a little painful. Nevertheless, I’m back here & documenting my New Years Resolution so that I can actually look back at it, rather than try to revive it from my memory at the end of the year.
Looking back on 2012, I feel that I’ve learnt many lessons and I have many more to learn. The past is a great learning tool if anything 🙂
- Turn off my work phone when not at work
One of the big issues for me with work is I tend not to switch off from work mode. I tend to leave my work phone on & actually answer it on weekends or at night time even if its just a text message or an e-mail that could’ve waited for when I’m back at work. I must remember that I cannot always run at everyone’s beck & call and not look after myself. Turning off my phone each night & on the weekends will be a good start to this.
I must admit, I am a pretty good saver (if I do say so myself!) as it is. Looking back on last year, I managed to buy a house & keep up with my mortgage. Plus overpay it a little, which is a pretty good as achievement in my books. Though I hate to admit this, I could’ve probably saved a bit more. I’ve written out a rough budget for this year to really work in saving every penny. If you know me in real life, I am a bit of a tight arse sometimes but I guess it pays off every now and again 🙂 But in all honesty, I’m working to save extra hard this year as I’m moving to Melbourne with my boyfriend in about 12 months time. Yes, you heard right, I am leaving Perth. That’s another blog post in itself 🙂
Pretty much based on the last point, I do also intend to overpay my mortgage so that I can pay it off sooner. I’m the kind of person who absolutely hates to have any debt & with a mortgage (the biggest type of debt one can possibly have) to pay off, I’m counting every last penny to put away for this. Now if only my bank came out with an app or something that tells me how much left I’ve got on my mortgage, I’d love them forever. I’m a big fan of countdown type apps or things left, gives me a goal to work towards 🙂
- Blog more and take more photos
This is probably the hardest of my resolutions so far. Its been rather easy dealing with Twitter & Instagram on a daily basis than lugging out a laptop to blog. I guess I don’t have much of an excuse as I have a Samsung Note 2 which has the WP app. I guess this for me is more to express stuff in more detail & in more than 140 characters plus build on my creativity. I have been feeling rather meh lately & not having a creative outlet has also been pretty draining. Sometimes it is rather nice to just type away on the computer and just blab out to the internet. I guess I also have been holding back on blogging as I am quite a private person and having my feelings typed out on the interwebs scares me that people might think I’m crazy or are quick to judge what I’m doing against their own sense or morality or right and wrong. I have issues with that. Anyway, I’ve made up my mind that there will be some private posts on there, plus password protected ones so please don’t be offended if I don’t offer you the password to read them as it gives me that peace of mind to be able to have a voice sometimes.
I am a very homebody kind of person, I’d much rather be sitting at home and cleaning or just watching tv than go out & party every weekend. 2011 was my party year (or year of rebellion as I like to call it) and I can honestly say, I’ve tried the going out clubbing & drinking thing and I don’t like it. I do enjoy a drink every now & again, but I must admit that being hungover for a good part of 2011 was not one of the best things I’ve done in my life. Hey, it had to happen right? I was never a rebellious teenager & have led a mostly sheltered life. I thought that at 25, it was good to say I had my year of partying like a teenager. Maybe I’ve just got arrested development LOL. In all honesty, I’ve had ups & downs last year and I have lost touch with a few friends here and there. I am wanting to make an effort in reconnecting with some friends and maintaining a small bunch of close friends rather than a large bunch of acquaintances. Its those people that you know are your true friends.
Its not a very long list of resolutions, but I’ve always been a believer of starting with small goals or baby steps and then building your way up before trying to tackle life’s rocks. If I can achieve even a small part of these resolutions, I think that’s a step in the right direction. I look at it as, I’ve improved on things from the day before. Even a small improvement is an improvement.
So, what are your resolutions for 2013? Leave me a comment below 🙂
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