:: Janice's *bLoG* ::

:: Thursday, September 18, 2003 ::

I know you're all thinking WHAT'S GOING ON? WHERE IS SHE? WHERE'S THE UPDATE?

Well, I have been flat out busy so I apologise for not updating sooner :) And I didn't exactly want my blog to be left idle for a month so I thought I'd update!

As most of you know I've started a new temporary job...the first week and half was pretty cool coz we were basically just in training and learning everything. But Monday was the day we "went live" and took the real customer calls...and let me tell you, 3 days into it and I am just about ripping ALL of my hair out! It is so extremely exhausting...I take on average about 60 calls a day. And let me tell you, I have a whole new respect for people with jobs like me who take calls from customers. Some customers really have no clue what they want when they call, some are totally abusive and pyschotic. Speaking of abusive and pyschotic, I actually got my first ANGRY (and I mean ANGRY) customer yesterday. From the moment she started talking, or yelling should I say, to the moment she stopped, it was just full on swearing and shouting 100 percent all the way. And I'm sitting there with my headset turned down (or I swear I'd be permanently deaf), leaned back in my seat, trying to figure out WHY she's blasting me with her anger when I'm not the one who sets the rules and regulations of superannuation! I keep telling her "Unfortunately, it's just policy" but she kept yelling "F*** this crap!"...and I'm like trying SO HARD not to say something I'd regret. Company policy is that if we have an abusive caller who's not willing to listen to what we have to say, we're allowed to warn the customer that we'll terminate the call. I was just about to when she goes "WHO IS YOUR OMBUDSMAN? I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR OMBUDSMAN!"..and I'm like you want to speak to WHO?!?!?!?!?!?! At that moment I was thinking to myself what the hell is an ombudsman? So I put her on hold (HAHA) and went to get my supervisor Vikki. Begged Vikki to take the call or my head would've exploded. Vikki took the call, and surprise surprise, she got blasted to. Vikki new what an ombudsman was but had no idea who our ombudsman was...EVENTUALLY after all swear words under the sun used by the wicked witch, she finally agreed to put in a letter of complaint. Like that would get her far. Tell me, who's ever sent in a letter of complaint about legislation and that legislation's been changed? LIKE NEVER! ANYWAY, other than that most of my customers are pretty cool and understanding. Oh there was this one guy that called and goes "Why do I have all these administration fees taken out of my account?" and I just felt like saying "To pay my salary sir!". Haha. I really believe that customers know that there HAS to be admin fees. Do they really believe that everything would be done for free? Every account you have has admin fees! Banks have admin fees. So they know WHY there are admin fees, yet they call up to fuss about it. And when they're about to hang up, they sound a lot calmer...so it's like they just rang up for the sake of ranting and venting! JESUS.

I just realised that I've whinged a fair bit about work...but it's really not that bad. Only just a few customers who can be total pain in the butts. But other than that, everything seems to be generally okay. I don't exactly want this job as my permanent job though that's for sure!

Work really has taken up a lot of my time...so I haven't had the chance to socialise as much. I finally saw Chinno after he got back from Tasmania and Adelaide. We had dinner last night. Tomorrow is Edwina's 22nd birthday! YAY! We'll be having dinner at the Spaghetti Tree and then probably go out to drinks after. Big, big celebrations ahead :)

Hmm, what else have I been doing...well a lot of my nights are spent watching TV now...coz I'm on a late shift, I finish work at 7pm and don't get home till nearly 8pm or sometimes after. So I just make dinner, have dinner and watch TV... also mainly because so many of my favourite TV shows are on at the moment...they just finished Bachelor 3! We had a 2 hour episode on Monday (the finale) and I was sooooooooo excited. I guess I was pretty happy with who he picked but I would've been happier if he picked the other one. Oh well :) And the Amazing Race is currently airing as well...it is getting GOOD...down to the final 3 teams. Dawson's used to be on...I am just soooooooo pissed off that Channel 10 stopped airing the last season. Apparently they had to because of bad ratings! Like who wouldn't watch Dawson's and WHY??? I was so distressed. I've been waiting so long for the last season to come back and now they do something like this. If that's not a cause for a letter of complaint to Channel 10, I don't know what is. So now, instead of Dawson's they're showing that silly MTV Punk'd show hosted by Ashton Kutcher. Kinda like a celebrity Candid Camera. I don't care, I want Dawson's to come back!

I guess that's it for now...I'll TRY not to let too many days (or weeks) go by without updating :) I hope everyone's doing great and just enjoying whatever they're doing at the moment!

:: *JaNiCe* @ 10:29 AM [+] ::

A whole week without posting anything??? What's gotten into me? Well, SORRY. I guess I've been doing other things other than being on the computer... mainly getting myself more addicted to reality TV....The Bachelor...The Amazing Race...For Love or Money....it just doesn't stop! :) Well, l did manage to do something more productive...like get a job! I managed to get a temporary job in an Australian superannuation company (AAS). I'll be in customer service and I swear to God, I'll be a REALLY nice customer service staff. You know how you ring up major corporations and they have REALLY rude and unfriendnly customer service people on the other end? You can rest assured that won't be me...unless they ask for it- like when people start abusing me on the phone- but I suppose it will be company policy to remain calm and cool. ANYWAY, this job goes for 8 weeks and it'll be full time during those 8 weeks, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm...and it's right in the city, so that's cool...not too far from me and I can have lunch with my sister or friends. The first week will basically be training and the next 3 weeks I'll be "learning" and HOPEFULLY after those 4 weeks, I'll be a pro :) I hope so. I suppose you could say I'm excited...mainly because it's my first real job (not including work experience, but excluding REAL permanent jobs) and also coz it's superannuation stuff and we didn't cover that in my course. So the plan for the moment is to hold onto this temp job and then I'll be going back to KL for a holiday in November and then I'll come back to Melbourne and if my PR still isn't approved by then, I'll just get another temp job. When this temp job starts this Wednesday, I'll be officially supporting myself...scary but has to be done and I'm actually looking forward to it.

Enough about the real world for a minute!

Finding nemo finally came to Melbourne!!! I can't believe how long it's taken for it to get here...it premiered in the US back in May! It's been 3 months for God's sake. Anyway, it was SO SO SO SO SO SO SO good!!! It was so funny, graphics were great and the characters were hilarious and cute. I think I'll be getting it on DVD :) It's just one of those movies (cartoons) you can watch over and over again and not get sick of it...oh, and I also cried. Suprise, surprise. Now that Finding Nemo has officially hit Australian shores, I bet pet shop fish sales just sky rocketed! I can just imagine every kid out there wanting to buy a clown fish and naming it Nemo. Hey, I want a clown fish so I can name it Nemo! :)

Ohhh I nearly forgot...graduation day was awesome! Everything went well....no, I didn't trip, fall over or forget to bow (much to your disappointment, Julian, I'm sure!)....it was an extremely long and exhausting day but very worthwhile I suppose...I mean, I only graduate once! Not counting if I plan to do Masters later on in life. It took just over an hour to get my gown...there were just so many people graduating...333 to be exact. The ceremony went for nearly 2 hours and I even paid full attention (nearly) to all the speeches. After the ceremony we took lots of pictures and even professional ones which we had to, guess what, yes line up for. Bloody lines. After last Saturday, I never wanna stand in a line ever again! After the whole thing (photos and all) I had a dinner celebration with lots of family. I guess you could say everything went pretty smoothly and with success...if you don't count the weather that is. It was a VERY wet Melbourne day...in fact Melbourne decided to be at its wettest and coldest on graduation day...oh well, as if I'd let something like that get me down. Except that I had straighted my hair for the ceremony and of course rain DID NOT help. ANYWAY, I am officially a graduate so that's all that matters :)

:: *JaNiCe* @ 1:05 AM [+] ::

I keep getting all these emails with HUGE attachments in it...I suspect they're all emails with viruses attached, so I just go ahead and delete them but they're SO annoying...I log-in to my email and it ALWAYS says I'm using 116% of my inbox...ARGH. This could mean that I'm not getting "real" emails that people are sending me coz my inbox just keeps getting too full. I am thinking of changing my email provider but that'll be too much of a hassle since almost everyone I know are used to my current email. Oh well. Stupid virus. Stop already. Thank God for Norton Antivirus though...don't think my laptop's been hit by that "worm". TOUCH WOOD.

Graduation is in approximately 16 hours. Please pray I don't trip, fall over or do anything that would embarrass me infront of a crowd of easily a thousand people (maybe I'm exaggerating, but there'll be A LOT of people). And we're even meant to "bow" to the Chancellor and the Dean...so let's hope I don't bow at the wrong person. Why do we have to bow anyway? It's weird how we have to pay respect to these people whom we've NEVER met throughout the entire 3 years (or however many years) of our course. Oh well, I guess they're pretty *important* people...so bowing it is.

Marcus is leaving for New Zealand on a snowboarding trip tomorrow morning :( Apparently there's been a pretty big earthquake in Queenstown which is where he'll be snowboarding, so pray he'll come home in one piece.

Finally heard from Andrea yesterday and today. Been wondering where she's been...thought she mysteriously disappeared into thin air after finals, but I figured she must've gone home to Kuching for a holiday....I was right :)

Will update after graduation!

:: *JaNiCe* @ 11:19 PM [+] ::

Okay, get ready for this.......

DAWSON'S CREEK IS RETURNING TO CHANNEL 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you can't already tell how excited I am...let me just tell you, I'm SO VERY, VERY, VERY, INCREDIBLY, EXTREMELY EXCITED! That has to be my most favourite TV show alongside Felicity. The final season aired what seems to be a 100 years ago in the US, but it's only finally making its way to Australian TV...so annoyed yet thankful and grateful :) I have not been to a single Dawson's website in AGES coz I'm afraid I might spoil the season finale...and if anyone even tries to hint to me what happens in this very last season, you'll be sorry! Haha. I'm still yet to get the entire 1st season on DVD. I have a feeling that the FINAL episode of this FINAL season will be an emotional and teary one for me...I mean, no Dawson's Creek for the rest of my life...that's a big thing. I was pretty teary with Felicity ending....so I won't be too surprised if the finale of Dawson's causes a fair bit of waterworks...I'll be surprised if I don't get emotional!

So last Saturday was pretty cool...had a great birthday dinner at Cafe Sienna, great atmosphere, great company, great food, great CHOCOLATE CAKE (sorry, Sharon!), great night. Everyone I invited (12 people) turned up so I was pretty pleased. Earlier that day, Ian called to ask if I had a birthday cake and candles to blow out at the restaurant and I said "Umm...NO". And him and the gang were thinking of getting me a cake but I gave Ian strict instructions NOT to get me a cake. Call me crazy (I know some of you will!) but I find the whole idea of a bunch of people singing Happy Birthday to me infront of a whole restaurant rather embarrassing. Chinno arrived with a HUGE box in tow and I was like "OMIGOD, that's NOT a cake is it?"...he assured me that it wasn't and my heart started beating again :) Anyway, after dinner, we ordered dessert- how could we not order dessert at Sienna? Before I knew it, desserts arrived, including the slice of chocolate cake that Marcus and I ordered, and on it a sparkling sparkler and everyone burst into the Happy Birthday song...it was actually pretty touching :) Ian being the sneaky person that he is organised it! Thanks Ian :) So after dessert and feeling like an absolute pig (I was SO FULL), we walked down to Bridie O'Reilleys for a few drinks...the dancefloor was so extremely packed which was rather disappointing coz I was in a dancing mood. Ed and I got onto the dancefloor and within 5 minutes I felt smothered and started getting really hot...so we decided to move away from the dancefloor. There were also so many drunk people *trying* to dance...it was annoying. The had no sense of balance and control whatsoever. Away from the dance floor, we stood around, had drinks and talked. Zlynn and the gang left a little early, which left Ed and the gang left to party the night away. We were sick of standing so we went outside to the courtyard (sort of) and just sat around talking and opening my presents (which I'll get to later!)...then we walked furthur down to Studio Cafe, the boys had Long Island Ice Teas (YUCK!), the girls had milkshakes and hot chocolates and we practically inhaled 2 bowls of chips. MmmMMMMmm...nothing better than a late night snack. We sat around talking more and finally decided that it was time to leave (actually, my feet just started hurting!) All in all, I had a great night and I hope everyone who turned up did too!

Now, on to the presents!! I got some REALLY cool presents...I have such good friends! Haha. Well, from Zlynn, Chinno, ML, Ian & Clifton, I got a couple of pairs of earrings which were sooooooo pretty....also got the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle CD, got a scarf...and get this, they got me a coffee maker!!!! I couldn't believe my eyes. I wonder why they thought of getting me a coffee maker...I mean, I only have like 4 cups of coffee a day :) And I also got a REALLY yummy bag of coffee beans from Starbucks (to go with the coffee maker I presume). Thanks guys! I loved all the presents :) By the way you guys left the pen you used to write the card with in the box, you want it back? :) Okay, from Emma & Leigh, I got some really nice coloured lipgloss and another pair of earrings. From Steph I got a really cool bag. From Ed I got a BEAUTIFUL warm scarf and a pretty purse, and from Fiona I got some really cool bracelets. Thanks everyone...I can't believe I liked ALL of my presents! You know how sometimes you get presents which you open and you go "ooookay...this is....nice". When you're really thinking- there's NO WAY I'm gonna wear this! Or something like that :) But seeing that my friends know me pretty well, that wasn't the case this year!

Graduation in FOUR days!

:: *JaNiCe* @ 1:05 AM [+] ::

Umm...no it hasn't, but I WANT it to spring! And SOON too! It is just too cold for my liking...well, not really, but I'm sick of cold weather and I am missing the beach! As much as I want summer to come rolling by, I am in a way glad it's not here YET...coz the condition of my legs are nowhere near where it should be for summer! Haha. Spring is fine, I can still wear jeans in spring :)

Well, I am in a DVD-craze phase at the moment...the other day, I watched Ocean's Eleven with my dad...that is such a good movie. When it first came out, I was pretty sure I was gonna find it boring, but NOPE, I was into it 100%...and found it so intriguing...kinda made you wanna go rob a casino. Haha. George Clooney really made it look *easy*. Anyway, back to DVDs...today I watched The Hours, FINALLY. And I also borrowed The Hot Chick (much to Chinno's dismay) and The Quiet American. I also borrowed Bridget Jones' Diary from my sister, even though I've seen it just about a billion times.

They started airing the new season of Amazing Race last night! It was excellent! I LOVE that show. It only seems to get bitchier and catty-er as the seasons go by...but who cares! Everytime Ed and I watch the Amazing Race, we're always so inspired to go do it, although I'm sure it'll strictly only be for American citizens. I keep wondering to myself if I'll ever be able to do something like that...coz it seems like even the fittest person on Earth wouldn't be able to get through it...but then again, I think of the old couple on the previous season and they came in second, so I'm sure I'll be able to get through with it!

Okay this strange, scary looking moth is flying around me...I HATE MOTHS, so I'm gonna get going. ULLLGH.



:: *JaNiCe* @ 2:28 AM [+] ::