back to the grind

I got back from Sydney on Sunday.

"How Did IT Go?"

Hey hey, I'm a big girl now - so I should be able to ride the Sydney waves just fine huh? =P
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Wednesday, 3rd October 2007
I finished reading Ms Potter at the airport bookstore. It's really quite a sad story but quite cute - the Ms Potter in question was the all famous Beatrix Potter with her beautiful illustrations of rabbits (I have some of her books back home) and her simple and fun stories of their adventures, and how she made it as a publisher. In that she also found and lost the love of her life, but learned to move on. Anyway. Nice, short, sweet, sad and for some reason gives me yet another reason to love Benjy the rabbit =3

Sydney. was. HOT.

The moment I stepped out of the plane I thought "OMFG why is it so bloody hot?! Melbourne is waaay colder than this!" and I was happy to see ah yee, Div & Rhys ^__^ Dinner was chicken rogan josh, some fried chicken wings, steamed veggies, rice and and the best part was the chicken soup (the one that Rachel tried to make once and didn't exactly turn out the way it was supposed to) XD Had 2 helpings of that despite my wisdom tooth. And also had a good cuppa tea XD it was sooo nice to be spoilt by ah yee but abit guilt-inducing since I didn't really help out. Not like she let me anyway. But she's soooo nice!
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Thursday, 4th October 2007
The next day, uncle Naresh dropped me off @ 275 Kent Street at what... 8AM? Right on the dot. After registering my existence with reception, I met Su Zen & Davis (both from UTS - heeey that's where korg studied! =3) and had a little chat of sort, getting to know each other - that kinda thing. Soon after Rajani, Ricky, Nikhil and another Kevin-like guy called Enoch sat around and we, well, got to know who was in the 'games' for the day. Davis was going "Oh yeah there are only 12 of us right? Why don't we tell them that its changed to the Sydney Docks area (or something like that)? That way the odds would be better," to which we laughed off.

Started off the day with Nathan briefing us on the day's proceedings. He's a nice guy - I think I'll say this in regard to most of the people there, although I remember a quite good-looking guy who was an assessor together with Emma, but I'll save that for later). Presentation was short and sweet: then we were generally separated into 2 batches of 6.

My batch started off with the aptitude tests. OMG I had barely enough time to do the damn thing: 25 mins for 48 true/false/maybe statements and 20 mins for 40 diagram 'logic' questions (you know, those "guess the next diagram in the sequence" thingamajig which I ABSOLUTELY hate). By the end of it we were somewhat drained mentally, and not to mention that there were still another 3-4 components to go.

We had morning break after that. Of course, seeing that my wisdom tooth was still being a pain I didn't really eat anything.

Next stage was the interview stage. First with Keith and.. erm (oh gosh I can't remember her name! Nicole I think?! @___@) Then with the cute-ish guy (haha sad I can't remember his name) & Emma. It was the kind of interview similar to the telephone interview (ie behavioral-type questions were asked) and I think I coped ok. The only thing was that I didn't really know what to ask at the end of the interview, and I touched on really on-the-surface stuff like work customs and work ethics and experience as a whole...bah.

After *that* was my favourite part of the day - the tour of the Westpac Place. WHOA I tell you the building is sooooooooo funky! I LOOOOVE the Yellow chairs @ Level 7 and the 'Attic' @ Level 32. They've got 3 cafes @ Level 32, 15 & 7. Visited 'em all. SWEET! It's like having 3 restaurants within the building itself! No wonder the grads (they took us around) were saying that sometimes they don't have to leave the building for the whole day! All of the floors have a random colour scheme of either green, yellow or red. The green I like, the red was also acceptable, but the shade of yellow they used makes the floor look dirty (although I still love the Yellow chair @ Level 7). And the cool thing is that all their office furniture is designed with ergonomics in mind. How cool is that? Although it makes your back ache after awhile @__@ Maybe we're all used to slouching comfortably on them.

The hardest part was yet to come, but the role play was the harder bit by far. Given a situation, I was given 25 minutes to analyze it and give a short 15-minute speech of my recommendations, in order of priority & my reasons why. I crapped ALOT here but I think it was still somewhat manageable. The assessor was actually briefing me on the task in the lift on the way up! @___@ Apparently we were running behind time so yeah I didn't really mind that bit. I *do* remember going through the papers thinking "OMFG what the hell is this stuff?! What do I say? What do I do?! What if I talk bullshit? @__@ guaarrghhhh!!" And the fact that the assessor kept popping in to see how I was doing made me abit panicky. But I *think* I still coped ok here.

Lunch after was rather nice - they had mini pizzas (I think all of us attacked it), sushi (which looked like cake @__@) and wrap, accompanied with bottled juice and some fruits. I ate light. Again, stupid wisdom tooth got in the way. Most of the time we were sitting around talking about how the day went, and how each of us found each stage of the assessment. Sometimes we'd talk to Nathan and boy is he chatty. I guess you'd have to be, seeing the amount of talking they're making us do.

The last part was probably where everything took a drastic turn. The one bit I really freaked out at - group discussion. We were first given 4 minutes each to present our recommendations again, and this time I talked too fast and I realized I talked so so so so much crap even the assessor sitting at the table was frowning at me, like she was trying to make sense of what I was saying. *sigh!* That probably made me fluster even more and made me abit too eager to finish up. Scott DEFINITELY directed the meeting, that was obvious without question. Nikhil and Ricky had some points worth mentioning while Mario was just being annoying. I mean, the dude kept butting in halfway to make HIS point heard while someone else was presenting their opinion which I thought was really rude and aggravating. Even that assessor was staring at him funny. No offense, but I say she had a right to. I had half a mind to say "Hey Mario, would you let him finish what he has to say?" but I didn't being quite freaked from screwing up the first 4 minutes. To sum up, I really didn't say anything much, I mostly listened to the conversation that was being carried out. Trust me, it took abit of getting used to 7 other random assessors sitting in the same room as us 6 (Ricky, Scott, Mario, Nikhil, Davis & me) and at the end of it all, Davis asked: "Did you realize none of us knew what we were talking about?" which definitely eased the tension, heavy in the air at that point of time.

All in all, it was really quite a memorable experience. I really enjoyed the whole day, the assessors didn't try to stress us out and they were really approachable. Not to mention the people I met that day - they were a great bunch to hang out with for the day. I mean of course ideally all of us would get to work together but in the end only 3 of us would clinch the deal. So *if if if if if if if* I get it I think I would really enjoy it - otherwise, this would be a REAL eye-opener for me and would give me more pointers should I have to do something similar in future.

May the most deserving 3 people get it! =3 Good luck to us all! ^__^

Ah yee and Rhys were waiting for me at the lobby, and off we walked. Stopped by QVB for a drink before riding the bus back. This time for dinner we went to an Indonesian restaurant with pretty interesting food. The char kuay teow wasn't too bad, but I always like mine with chilli paste, and the most interesting fare I had there was the deep fried cauliflower - it was actually really good! Oh yes, and the sambal belacan! That really hit the spot~ *drools*
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Friday, 5th October 2007
We headed off to the shopping mall at Westfield after dropping Div off as she was meeting up with her friends to go to Coogee beach... on the way there she was telling me which floors had good shops to set foot in which actually came useful =P On hearing that I didn't have a dress for ah koo's wedding ah yee happily suggested that we go shopping for one! Hahhaha she's actually quite the shopper herself~ bought a pretty and simple white dress patterned with flowers on the borders. Nice and simple. After that I saw this dress-thingy from Jayjays and I thought I just had to get it cause it was soooooooo cooooooool! XD

Later after lunch we went to Coogee beach to pick up Div, and whoa the beach was so nice! It was sunny, and I bet the water was warm~ the skies were blue blue blue and the sea looked so inviting~

We headed to the airport shortly after and I said my farewells, promising them that I'd see them again soon enough since I was gonna head down after the exams are over ^__^

Took the plane back, and boy was the flight boring.

Stayed the night at auntie ming's. Haven't seen Ruby in awhile, and for the most part we were talking about Deathnote =P Also took the chance to finish reading up what I missed out. Coke (I think that's what they call their dog) was sooo cute! She kept trying to lick me =P
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Saturday, 6th October 2007
Went to watch Superbad, which was actually super funny! I mean it actually made me and Ruby cringe in our seats and laugh at the same time! I would recommend it but not after meals, there could be a chance you might throw up from laughing too much =P We hung out at Borders for awhile and guess what, of all people to meet (this shouldn't come as a surprise anymore but it still does) I met egghead Aik. Forgot which, but I'm guessing it's aiksern. OMG why is it that we always cross paths! We kept telling each other that our luck took a drastic turn after setting eyes on each other in the bookstore. Apparently his house is flooded cause the tap is leaking, he woke up in the morning and stepped into a puddle of water. @__@

Auntie ming cooked up some salmon for dinner which tasted divine! XD Loved it soo much!
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That kinda concludes my little trip. What a break from Gippsland =P