The Diet Group
There is definitely a familiar theme to my blog writing - if anything it may be too much of a dejavu...more and more diet and losing weight and body toning issues.

Despite the personal trainer regime and 28 day diary to the new me given by the gym, not a lot has worked and i have no results to show.

The other girls that i know here are also in a similar boat therefore we have decided to start a group diet to help and motivate each other. (Not that it has worked before this...). So, the plan was for each of us to record exactly what we eat, we must exercise at least 4 times a week, weigh ourselves at the beginning and at the end of the week. The idea is to do this for 4 weeks, compare notes, motivate each other and see what works for one person which could be beneficial to others. Also, the other 'twist' was if someone puts on weight then there is fine to be paid into the kitty and at the end of 4 weeks, we all get to go out for a pizza with that money. (and put back all the weight which we tried so hard to lose).

Its been ok for me in the first few days - i was surviving on fruit medley most of the time. I was also hard at it at the gym and on the days that i did not go to the gym, i managed to walk to and from work.

Unfortunately, the diet went haywire on Friday and Saturday because I decided to join Angela on a weekend away to Busselton. And, as you always do on your holidays, you just chill, do nothing and eat crap.. although the ice cream, the chips and raisin and nut toast was absolutely lovely and not something that i would call crap.

Anywyay, i shall be weighing myself tonight. I may just have to tell white lies to the group because i dont think i have lost any weight. Maybe i should just give up and be contented with the way I am...

Many people question my aim and my motivation and reasons to lose weight. My main reason is because all my trousers that i have are too tight and i want to go back to my old size. My sister thinks that i should be happy with the way i am now because i was (apparently) too thin before. I was going through a distressed period as she calls it so it was only natural that i was thin then.... perhaps shes right.. oh well... at the end of the day, i'm just a typical woman, never happy with herself, will always find the flaw, something to moan about and constantly scrutining herself and asking "Does my bum look big in this??"

Getting a personal trainer
I decided to give notice to cancel my gym membership last week considering that my contract in Perth will end in the next few months and i am unlikely to extend it. Furthermore, since joining the gym nearly 6 months ago which has set me back over $400 during that period, I cannot see any visible result from this 'extravagant' expense. If anything, instead of achieving my desired result of losing weight and fitting into a size 8 dress/trouser, i think i may have put on weight and perhaps jumped up to a size 12!!

Anyway, as part of their scheme to prevent you from cancelling, the gym decided to throw in a free assessment and personal trainer for me, for 4 weeks to ensure i am doing things right bla bla bla... results guaranteed bla bla blaa... It worked anyway coz i decided to go ahead with the plan, at least for the next 28 days.

The first session yesterday was when i was told that i have 33% body fat. damn them. How do they know anyway. damn them. The news was so depressing that i decided to work 1.5 hours at the gym and skipped going out with Angela and Liz who were already waiting for me.

Today i am suffering from the after effects of over working at the gym. damn them ! its all their fault. at the end of all this, they still get my money, they get to tell me how fat i am, i am hurting all over and still not the result that i want. why is it that they say No pain no gain...?? that is so far from the truth for me... i am in bloody pain but have gained nothing!!! none whatsover, zilch!!

Feeling HOT HOT HOT
This week has been an absolute killer. The weather has been absolutely scorching and in my opinion, the all year round humid and hot weather in Malaysia pales in comparison to the summer in Perth. Ok, maybe its only for a few days but it feels like forever to me particularly because i do not have air conditioning at the house and its just too much to bear.

Sleeping at night has been a chore, last night i even resorted to having a wet towel on me as well as having a full blast fan (and annoyingly noisy one too) directed at me the whole night. I woke up a few times during the night to re-wet the towel just to help me cool down.

Temperatures been around the high 30s to low 40s and even at night its around low 30s. (Somehow i dont remember KL being this hot although admittedly it is a LOT more humid in KL than it is here).

With this current heat wave, there is also a big surplus of electricity usage (from air cons) and Western Power announced that they could probably not cope with the extra demand. I just can't understand it considering Perth and Western Australia is one of the biggest gas suppliers in the country (if not in the world), yet, it cant really supply gas to its own residents. So, usage of air con was supposedly banned today, with fines imposed up to $1,000 for individuals and $10k for companies.

The client where i was working decided (stupidly) to comply with the regulations..(who cares if it results in power breakdown!!) and the office was just a sauna. Added to that, we,being the auditors, known to be the most favourite visitors to any company..(NOT!!) were all put in a tiny room, with big window all round to allow direct sunlight (and lot and lots of heat) to come in. Added to that, we all have our computers which added extra heat to the room. Even during sitting down, i could feel myself slowly drowsing in and out of the real world. About ready to collapse and melt, literally!! Had to resort to wetting my face, hands, arms, neck every hour even though i looked extremely unprofessional with the 'wet look' but who cares what they think.. it was basic surviving skill. Obviously the productivity was minimal, i may as well have gone home although it would have been the same at home too....

The news to come is that it will cool down to around 29 degress (big deal, but still, a welcome change). I will look forward to the cooler temperature and next week i will be sent to Banbury where i will be put up in an airconditioned motel called Welcome Inn...I for, one, most definitely welcome the forecast weather change and the Banbury job.

In the mean time, i have to remember to pick up my bits and pieces in case i really do literally melt like a candle.....

The role of auditors
I know that my job description is not the most interesting or stimulating in the world and I have no intentions to talk about what it is that i do at work. However, I have been at a really really crap client this past few days and its really annoying me.

I was really close to having an argument with them. I think the (overly paid) financial controller is not as switched on as she should be and so takes every opportunity to blame someone else if anything goes wrong, including her junior staff and us, the auditors.

I picked up a few errors in the accounts which have been there for ages and ages. In their defensive mode, the client resorts to blaming it on us for not picking it up during our last audit. Admittedly, we probably should have picked it up, however, if the error is not material then it does not really matter to us. We are performing our opinion on whether the financial statements are true and FAIR, and not whether every single item is correct and accurate. Ultimately the responsibility for the accounts are on the director/financial controller, whatever. It is their accounts, their business and they should be answerable to their shareholders, so stop putting the blame on us. Besides, if your records that you gave us are crap and incomplete how do you expect us to pick up errors. We are not fortune tellers to be able to pick up something from thin air. What a dickhead & a bitch.

Ok, thats it, just feel like i need to let off some steam.

NIM for work NIM for work NIM NIM NIM NIM NIM
NIM ... Not In Mood.... Got that phrase from my good Irish friends when they came over for a visit.

Its extremely painful and excruciating to get back into the swing of things, the thing that you have to do that is called work. My mind is still on holiday mode, can barely remember what day it is , had to remind myself how to use calculators, and so when presented with accounts errors, accounting standards and all those interesting things relating to auditing, I was just about ready to drop and go home.

Unfortunately I had to work my ass off, partly to pay off the trip as well as helping me to plan the next trip. With the kind of holiday that i just had, a holiday after the holiday to cure the post blues holidays will always help. I also think that if you start planning for the next holiday after one just finishes also helps ease the pain of getting back to the ole, mundane world of work.

Will keep this short coz i am absolutely knackered and still need to unpack my stuff. It's Wednesday already and things are still lying on the floor, laundry waiting to be washed bla bla bla... The joys (and despair) of living on your own..On one hand, I have no one telling me what to do and get to do things as i please but on the other, there is no luxury of someone else cleaning after my mess.... Oh well such is life..

The Australian state capitals....Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane
I will describe these cities in the order in which i visited them.

Perth - I would say the most chilled out and laid back place out of the four cities. It's beautiful, peaceful and relaxing. Clean city, people are friendly (although sometimes it gets on my nerve), shopping - mediocre, very hot summer and definitely lives up to its reputation as being the most isolated city in the world!

Melbourne - crap weather and my impression of Melbourne was that it was so gloomy, it reminded me of Manchester. However, its definitely busier and has more life than Perth. In my opinion, it's shopping heaven for those who love to hit the shops, for bargains and there are also lots of small botiques if you want to avoid buying from the high street stores. Whilst i was here, i also took the opportunity to watch the Australian Open tennis. I saw MnEnroe playing, the home town boy Phillipousis (who lost that day) and i am sure i saw the top of Agassi's bald head. The never ending strips and strips of cafe and restaurants at St Kilda and its neighbouring suburbs are just unbelievable. You could almost take your pick, whichever or whatever your taste buds feels like.

Sydney - absolutely beautiful city. The most photographed landmark - the Sydney opera House is just a work of a genius ( in the name of Jorn Utzon) and the view from the top of the Sydney harbour bridge is just amazing, definitely a sight to behold. Climbing the bridge was another achievement, although admittedly it wasn't really that scary because we were all fastenly secured all the way along the bridge. The beaches - Bondi to Coogee and Manly are beautiful although i did not really want to change my already naturally dark skin tone. I am just so gelap now i just think i need to live somewhere in the Antartic to have any chance of getting rid of some of the melonin.

However, there is another side to Sydney which i was not really fond of. It's very dirty, extremely busy and some parts of the city just made me feel like i was in a big huge Chinatown, or reminded me of some places like Jalan Imbi. Overall, i think its worth the visit (albeit very expensive) but i would not want to live there.

Brisbane - the historical and more colonial city. A little bit like Perth but a bit busier. I enjoyed my stroll along the SOuth bank area but overall, i think its just another city. Nice to visit but on the same token, not really that much to shout about.

There are 3 more state capitals which i have yet to visit, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart and Adelaide. I imagine Canberra to be like Putrajaya, just offices (probably grander than your average office). I don't really fancy going to Darwin and I am not too fussed about Adelaide either. I would like to visit Tasmania and see what it's like.

All in all, I would say i like Melbourne the best, and i would really love to get the opportunity to live there....

Byron Bay.. the eastern most point of mainland Australia
I am still in Byron Bay, which is about 10 hours away from Sydney (more or less, i think, taking into account bus stops etc). Byron is a lot livelier than the other stops such as Port Macquarie or Coffs Harbour. It's got strips of shops, cafes, bars and the unique thing about this place is the vast number of health and beauty places that are around. You can be spoilt for choices and its not just the normal facials and massages, there are loads around town including aromatherapy, floating tanks, the tarrot readers, iridologers (where they look into your eyes and see what they reveal, what illness which you may be prone too etc), naturapatist (if i am spelling this correctly).

As with the other places that i have been to Byron also offers the usual surfing lessons, opportunity to get the diving (PADI) certificates, the usual adrenaline activities like skydiving or paragliding. The most unusual offering is a 2 hour trapeze lesson for $40. I was very tempted to try this, as well as having a pampering session later. Unfortunately due to budget restrictions and other plans i have decided to abandon the idea.

We walked along the beach yesterday enroute to the Lighthouse, cape byron, which is the eastern most point in Eastern Australia. It's just really evxciting to know that youre at the end of the world (not literally) but still, its a good photo shot for me to remember in my old days of some of the places that i have been to. Oh yes, i must also mention of the dolphins that were swimming around the lighthouse beach... just amazing scenery.

I am off for a quick stop over in Surfers Paradise, apparently one whole big beach town. Today however, i have decided to make a day trip to Nimbin, apparently the drug capital of Australia... I have been told that it's full of hippies and its definitely a different scene, so, probably well worth going just to see what goes on there..

For now, i think i have just about used up my 20 minute internet free limit and i am best off signing off before losing all this (creative) writing!!

Skydiving... the ultimate adrenline rush
Its been really hard (and expensive) trying to squeeze the time and budget to write into the blog page whilst still travelling. I am now in Byron Bay, about 10 hours north of Sydney and the lighthouse here is the eastern most point of Australia.


I stopped over in Coffs Harbour yesterday and decided to take the plunge (literally) and did a tandem skydiving. The whole thing cost me quite a lot of money, with video and all for me to relive the moment but it was well worth it. I jumped with an instructor from 10,000 feet high and freefall for almost 40 seconds. The whole experience was just surreal, a bit nerve recking when i first jumped out of the plane but knowing that an experienced person is taking me and securely fastened to his belly made it a bit easier for me. When the parachute opened it was just like flying. The view of the ocean was just amazing, something that i will not forget for the rest of my life, definitely an experience of a lifetime. Would love to do it all over again, if i am brave enough, by myself but who knows....
I slept smiling the whole night (probably not) but still, remembering the whole thing just gives me a real buzz.

A different buzz to when i was bunjee jumping but still a memorable one.

Will write more later of my solo journeys around east coast Australia, more when i get back. This whole 20 minute internet is rushing me and not permitting me to write longer.

I would definitely recommend sky diving to those who dare, not quite for those with fear of heights but for those adrenaline junkies like me, doing it tandem is definitely a must try.

Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane... bring it on!!!
The day has finally arrived.. (well.. not just yet, its still another 23.5 hours before my flight to Melbourne) but the flight has been booked, accommodation sorted, good company (Rebecca agreed to come along at the very last minute, replacing Pored who dropped out just as late), plans made etc etc etc.

The thing about Australia and more specifically Perth, is that you don't realise how far apart from place from another is. Perth especially, is the most isolated city in the world. If i did not come here, I don't think I would really understand how big this country is. No wonder it is a continent on its own. If you superimpose the European continent into the Australia map then Europe would very easily fit into Australia. After realising how HUGE this country is, (and hence how expensive it is to get accross to the Eastern states) i just cannot help being extremely hyper about this trip. Most people that i know here, including Australians have not been to Melbourne or Sydney themselves.

I have been busy packing, and as usual am having problems fitting everything that i intend to bring into my rucksack. Needless to say, travelling light is definitely not one of my best attributes. Amongst my dilemma include how cold will it be in Melbourne - the weather news is showing around 20-25 which I would say HOT when i was living in England. Nowadays after being hit by the Perth scorching heat of high 30s or 40s, even the high 20s can sometimes make me want to put on a jumper.

Another exciting thing about this trip is that I will be going to see the first tennis grand slam of the year, the Australian open. It will be the 4th round game and provided that the favorites and the high ranked players don't get knocked out too soon, I am hoping to watch some good games. Watching Justine Henin-Hardene the current world No 1 would be the BOMB! I will make sure that i have my cameras in check and ready, in case I brush shoulders with the cuties like Agassi or Marat Safin or even Pat Rafter if he is still playing...

Righty-o time to catch some sleep.. Busy day tomorrow at work and some last minute packing and all.

The fraud lottery win....
To my surprise I had an overseas stamped letter waiting for me when I got home yesterday. Still slightly confused as to who the sender may be (the letter looked like a normal personal letter rather than the usual garbage, commercial boring stuff that you get nowadays) I ripped through the envelope to find that the letter came from an organisation called La Primavera, the national lottery company based in Spain.

The letter said that as part of their El Mundo Promotions Program around the world, my ticket number xxx and reference number xxx had won the top prize to be shared between 7 winners, picked from 25,000 names. My prize money was in the region of 400k Euro, which, in my mind equates to over 1 million RM, therefore making myself a millionaire back home. I read, and re-read the letter not knowing what to do. If it did not have the lottery bearing on it I knew I would have been jumping up and down , screaming like a lunatic ..so on and so forth. I was completely confused as to why I had won, considering I definitely did not buy a lottery ticket in Spain, cannot even remotely recall if I had visited a Spanish website etc. In my mind I was also struggling with what to do if its real.. can I take the money, would it be classified as duit haram due to its association with the lottery even though I never bought any ticket (hence technically not gambling)... or what if I use the money for other things but not food (my darah daging argument - refer to one of my early blog entries..). How could I justify this money to my family, would I be a disgrace for winning haram money... (ok I was slightly dramatic)...but when I did allow myself to dream about the money, I thought this is my chance to quit my job at least for one year and do what I really wanted to do - to take time off and travel the world.. no backpacking this time, I could have a holiday of a lifetime. I could even buy a nice house and fast car etc.

I immediately phoned up my good friend Asbi who was as excited as I was and advised me to open a new bank account and put minimal money in it and give details of that account to the "Spanish Securities Company". Admittedly, i had never even thought of that which ultimately confirms my naivety as I was about ready to fax my details to them, including some personal information. I am glad now that i decided to ignore the letter's instruction of not telling anyone because as soon as i mentioned it to Angela, she immediately dismissed the idea and confirmed that it was a scam. A similar thing happened to a work colleage before which turned out to be a way for people to extract money from your bank account.True enough, after researching the internet today, i could find nothing that mentions about the International Promotion or the securities company.

Although i was slightly dissapointed and enjoyed the i'm a millionaire in Malaysia moment (albeit only for about 30 minutes), I am still glad that it had happened. Apart from having to remind myself to be more cautious of all the prankters and the scamming thats going out, the 'win' could not have come at a more timely hour. You see, i have been reading my 2004 horoscope which says that I (and a zillion other Scorpions) will be having big wins bla bla bla. So, i have been tempted to buy lottery ticket and decided to ignore the consequences if i do win.. thinking i will deal with the dilemma if and when it happens... I thought i would be able to handle any lottery money wins, as long as i dont use it for food etc... Now i know better. It's not that simple and if i do indeed win something from gambling money, it will just be unwanted headache and possible heartache which i will impose on myself.........