Archive for July, 2009

« Older Entries

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Friday, July 17th, 2009

So, before I share my news (although half of you readers have no doubt already seen my celebratory “punching the air” status on Facebook), I would like to share with you an image that demonstrates exactly how proud I am to be living in a city littered with people of the same ethnic background as myself:

Now who doesn't like a good dose of Everyday Happy?

Now who doesn't like a good dose of Everyday Happy?

This is up there in the list with “Won Kee” and “Pho King”. Try saying those five times fast.

I am, ladles and jellyspoons of the readership, no longer unemployed. Of course, that’s not to say that the path to this employment was not paved with stress and grey hair. I got a call at precisely 12:22PM this afternoon while in the city, which involved me not actually answering the call and letting it go to voicemail. I check said voicemail half an hour later, and the employer sports a serious tone of voice, saying “Xuan, I’d just like to have a chat with you at your convenience. If you could ring us back after one o’clock, that would be great. Bye bye.”

Cue me borderline shitting my pants, since they called me yesterday at around the same time to tell me that there had been an issue with contacting the referees I’d listed on my CV. “Crap…” I thought. But then the phone rings again! Gasps all around…

An hour later, I’m bashing away at a piano, all happy-happy-joy-joy because I now have to wake up at 6:30AM on Wednesday and Thursday for job training. Ah well. The pay will be worth it. Or at least, my fingers are crossed that it will be.

So from now on, I think I will be everyday happy! Joyous.

Posted in Not-So-Everyday, Work | 1 Comment »

Worse than Peak-Hour Traffic

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

You know what’s worse than peak-hour traffic? Sitting in front of a computer in the library of your university, constantly refreshing timetable pages at 9:25AM so that you can clamber over the thousands of other people doing the same course as you and snatch up a spot for yourself in the class that you want – a class that at least two hundred other people are all vying for, all in the larger scope of class registration for the School of Psychology that opens at 9:30AM.

And you know what’s worse than doing the above at 9:25AM? Doing the above at 9:25AM… for another fifteen minutes. Without stopping. Until you finally find that the registration barrier’s been removed at 9:40AM, not 9:30AM, and there are finally those pretty, sexy options you can click on. Despite their sexiness, you can feel the hostility in the room – it’s almost like a tense mist that won’t budge, and everybody’s on edge, because chances are, at least ten other people in the same room as you are going for the same tutorial as you.

So you eye them with a narrowed gaze, much like the bad guy and the sheriff in the old Western films, only without the tumbleweed. And then you suddenly move your mouse like lightning, click on the options you want, quickly glance at them a second time and then a third to verify that you won’t end up being a stupid ass and entering yourself in the wrong class, then you hit the Submit button and wait… and wait… and wait…

And you’re fucking successful - it’s all over in a matter of ten seconds that feel like a trillion years, and then you reflect on the past fifteen minutes and wonder exactly how many grey hairs you’ll be growing from all the tension, nervousness, stress, and paranoia that the pre-semester class registration has put you through. And in fact… you can see a grey hair already. It’s almost exciting.

In related news, my timetable has worked out the way I wanted it to – three days of uni per week, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’d pull a Nellie and draw up my timetable in a nice table, all pretty and suchlike, but… at the moment, I really can’t be arsed. I’m too busy coming down from the high of paranoia that reached its peak two hours ago when I was hunched in front of that library computer, feverishly refreshing like my life depended on it. So, I’m off to have lunch. :)

Posted in Everyday, University | 2 Comments »

Job Interviews and Suchlike

Friday, July 10th, 2009

If there’s one thing I dislike about applying for jobs, it’s the kind situation you find yourself in, where you feel that a job interview went “alright”, and then you reflect on it afterwards – only to find yourself successfully coming up with better answers to interview questions that are far more cohesive and impressive than the actual answers you gave.

Example: My job interview was in the afternoon on Wednesday. An informal, chatty session underpinned by questions not unlike “What do you think customer service means?” and “What do you think your strengths are?”. Now don’t get me wrong – I answered the questions just fine, but it wasn’t until afterwards that I started getting a little paranoid, thinking things like “Damnit, I should have mentioned knowing the target market and tailoring information to suit a particular customer!” or “Was it really necessary to stress the fact that I like harbouring a keenness to learn and adapt to new situations… five times in the course of the interview?”.

So, the moral of this story, folks? Go into job interviews prepared, and don’t watch your own hand like a hawk when reaching for that cup of water they’ve so courteously supplied for you – you might see yourself shaking slightly with nervousness… this will only cause said nervousness to reach explosive proportions. Also, wear a belt if need be. And by “if need be”, I mean “because it completes the ensemble, and your pants will feel naked and vulnerable without one”.

Applicants for the position will be notified by next week, so I’m keeping my phone with me at all times possible – I’d rather answer the call directly than let it go to voicemail. Paranoid yuppie that I am. In the meantime, though, I’ll be travelling to the Central Coast with a few friends soon, then returning to Sydney in the evening on Monday… only to go with two of said friends to one of their houses for a day or two of horror movies, fast food and general vegging out. So perhaps that will suffice in distracting me until the results for the semester that just passed are released on Tuesday… (Hello slight sense of panic and dread!)

Posted in Everyday, Rambles 'n' Shambles, Social-esque | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries