Archive for August, 2006

Message on my pay slip

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” -Dr. Seuss

This is a message printed on my pay slip. I am not sure if I will get different one every time when I get a pay slip, but I am pretty sure that I do like what payroll people do on this small piece of paper every fortnight, because usually calculating the figures could be a very boring job, so could it be for the payees when they are reading them. So in this regard, I think Council’s payroll people are very smart, sensible and into human feelings. Apart from this tiny detail, I also noticed the colour of the paper. It has a style kind of like washout, combining light grey and light blue. Actually two colours blend perfectly right in the middle, like those super-good quality letter papers. It hence gives me a wrong illusion that it might have a fragrance, so I can’t help smelling it, but no, no scent. It was just my imagination, hehe…..

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Rules Rules and Rules

The first big accomplishment I have achieved on this new job is that I finished upgrading the clients filing system. I took me one and half days to go through about 2000 files. The old handwriting roller tapes have been removed and the new printing labels and index strips look so neat and tidy, which make it much easier for people who try to get access to those files. I have noticed that the time spent on “haunting” in the compactus has dramatically reduced for everybody. There is no more complain about why they can’t find someone’s file, why the file was being put in the wrong place or how hard to read the client’s name on the roller tape blah blah blah.

This morning, Les walked into my office. She tried out the new thing and got what she wanted quickly. But when she was trying to put the file back, she started to seem a bit too cautious, worrying about messing up the new system. I laughed at her “what are you hesitating about?” She said “I just don’t want to smack up your system”. She is such a nice lady and I believe she spoke what she thinks. But……is this MY system? Do I have a system?

After all this, I started to look towards back and re-consider if I am actually living in SOME systems that I established by myself and how much I have to rely on them. They are not just something seen in workplace but something exist everywhere in my life, about how I eat, how I sleep, how I wear, how I interact with others…..I see how many rules that are ruling my life and how much freedom I have been given by this kind of ruling and meanwhile how little of it has been left with me. Some kinky habits of mine, like folding up clothes in a certain way, wiping the falling leaves in the backyard at least once a week, must putting on clean underwear after I wash my hair, never use coat on lip gloss before I use mascara and so on, look so odd, but they work well with me as if they were brought up natually. It is so insane, but they are growing on me because actually I find that I do like them.

My husband and I used to talk about the contradiction between creativity and discipline. We all agree that too much discipline cause people’s low creativity, especially on kids. But with all the tradition, culture even our parenting behaviours genetically passing down from one generation to another, I doubt if we could make it a real change in the future when we have a child. I would hate being the one shouting at him or her what s/he must do or must not do, but I equally have no idea if I would love to appreciate whatever interests him or her. I really don’t know what it would look like at that stage :-(

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Scent of a Woman

I decided to apply a bit perfume this morning. I opened up one of my cabinets, wow…..which one I should pick? I was so lost. They all smell good and look nice otherwise I would have chucked them into the bin earlier, but some of the bottles probably have been staying there for at least one year and guess what, they are still very full. “OMG, I should have used them more”, I said to myself, exactly like what I did in the last time when I had the same situation. I suppose nothing has changed; they still look like what they looked like.

I love perfume, or specifically speaking, I love all the things with fragrance. Comparing the different smells over the counter of perfume section is good, aroma bath therapy is lovely and burning the fragrance oil in a scent holder is my favourite, and I also love collecting the beautiful bottles with wonderful shapes, but I hardly use them or buy them because my nasal problem doesn’t allow me to work on the strong stimulation. Plus, I am such a busy and forgetful person, after jumping out of the bed in the early morning and fighting like a soldier in the battle of kitchen, I seldom remembered to get some perfume before I take off for the work. I guess I am just not that casual to have much time wandering in shopping malls and strolling on streets like girls born in Saudi Arabia. But on the other hand, my girl friends and my female family relatives such love giving me perfume as presents; I got DKNY from Emelie on recent birthday occasion, CD green poison and J’Adore from my sister in-law, Mariella Burani from my previous workmate and Shiseido green Relaxant from one of my sister’s colleague whom I used to help with something but I don’t remember what it was. I am so terrible.

Sometime I pinched my husband’s Givenchy Ultramarine or Kenzo but it is better not to let him know. I love men’s perfume, especially Jazz, Davidoff Cold Water and that orange bottle of Clinique Happy for men. He hates the colour, says it’s too woman. I don’t understand. Who would care what colour of the perfume bottle is? They just smell…in the matter of that, they act like dogs, not artists.

The only perfume I bought in this life is a 10ml bottle of a Chinese brand (from province of Nanjing) called Ballet. It has a fragrance of Gui Flower. The bottle is very ugly but the smell is so sweet and female. It doesn’t smell as cheap as its price $14RBM. Actually I would consider it as a good product but very few people knows its name. The rich Chinese girl always go for those expensive famous French or American brands, they don’t even pay a look at those under $300RMB. I used it all the time when in Uni which had become one of my iconic things in a small loop of my female friends. Trust me, I love it so much because whenever you have it on, it will give you a feeling of being blessed and making you feel more like a woman.

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Something about My Nails

I was sitting there and holding one of my nail tools. My husband looked at me and tried to say something but finally, he didn’t slip even one word. He must have gotten tired of my almost ill obsession with cutting my nails, I can hear him nearly shouting out, “again? You sick people!” I was very sure that it wasn’t my paranoid as he did this before, trust me if he didn’t say something like this; it was just because he got too fed up with my odd behaviour at that moment.

That’s how I was inspired to talk about my nails here. Bur first of all, I have to let you know that I never liked my nails in the past and I can predict that I would never like them in the future as well. Yes, in this regard, I am absolutely a mentally unhealthy woman living in her self-image crisis. According to my standard, mind you which is actually very low, my nails have never been good, ugly shape, bad material, dry and weak skin in the surrounding area and easy to get peeled. I wouldn’t bother getting them polished with nice enamel; No, they are just not worth it. What I am obsessed with is to cut them to an incredible length of short and making them look very bald. I feel good about doing so because I could not stand the white parts of my nails growing beyond 1 mm. My Genius record was once I had them about 0.5cm long. It only lasted 3 days despite I felt they have grown into my skin for about 3 years. It was so uncomfortable that I couldn’t wait to cut them off before I got a chance to get them polished, which actually was the whole idea about at the beginning. Since then on, I never tried again.

I also had a short history of biting my nails about one or two years during my early teenager hood. I guess I did that because I couldn’t find better and more convenient nail scissors than my teeth. But I gave it up soon after I found that I was required to frequently point to something with my fingers when I was asked to explain a mathematic question for my classmates, especially the boys, as requested. I have to admit that it had amazing impact on shaping one’s health behaviours :)

With the time passed by, I have gradually formed my own theory about the nail treatment. Since they are not born to be good, then at least I’d like to keep them clean and tidy. I am still very fascinated with women who always have their nails polished with bloody red colour or wear faked pretty plastic nails. I love to see the proud on their face when they are showing off their beautiful hands, but I know there is no point for me to go to a nail salon once a month or spend a while putting my hands on a nail technician’s table. I will be cutting them, cutting them and keep cutting them….till I can’t cut them myself :-0

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又吃到猪肉了

经 过最近一个月不定期地尝试,我们发现Woorworth卖的猪肉居然真的没有骚味儿。昨天我们又进一步放开了胆子,买了一tray价值9澳元左右的五花 肉,切了一小片扔锅里一煎,还是没有味道——我们兴奋啊(又能吃猪肉了)。。。然后就是遗憾啊(这两年都没敢吃猪肉) 。。。接着是郁闷啊(错过了多少好吃的东西啊)。。。最后是重新充满希望(又可以开始吃猪肉了)。。。爽得很!!!但是我估计在澳洲这几年饱受折磨的猪肉 之苦早就成为我心头一痛了,恐怕这辈子都很难完全消除,因为次次吃猪肉之前,我都有意无意地期待闻到和吃到那种可怕的尿骚气,哪怕有时候并没有味道,我也 觉得好象能够感觉到——我心里有病了!

好吧!就此将痛苦的记忆打住。我们用这块五花肉做了一锅北方的红烧肉。记得我妈跟我说要先用糖在油 里炒,这样可以帮助肉上色和将肥油逼出来。我放的是冰糖若干小块,炒的时间不算长。不过我先在生肉里拌了花雕酒、盐和花椒(根据老公的指示)、葱段儿和姜 片,所以最后将肉下锅炒时,感觉颜色红绿黄相间,很是好看诱人。炒过之后,加入老抽和水,盖盖儿焖。前后炖了共两个小时,但是让我郁闷的是,水怎么也炖不 干,反而是越炖越多,不知道是什么原因。最后出锅时,上面足足有一厘米的油花儿,另外老抽放得太少,颜色不够深,看着肥肉的部分有点太白,而总体的味道除 了咸味儿之外,还欠缺其它的味道层次,需要下次继续钻研,看看是不是放些别的香料什么的。不过,真的是不错了,肥而不腻,而且这是猪肉啊,同志们!!!! 尽管我们现在已经很少吃肥肉了,但是为了庆祝这个重要的改变,我还是勇敢地一顿吃了八大块,就算变成猪我也认了!

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