I WAS NOT IN SAN FRANCISCO!!

wednesday, 28 september, 2005 16:45 MAT

grandma rang me over the weekend. she rang to wish me happy birthday. that was nice.

then she rambled on for a bit, as old people do sometimes. the largest portion of the telephone call was a stupid argument. she was absolutely positive that i went to san francisco earlier this year. she was rather sad that i didn't get in touch with her whilst i was there. she said she saw it on my livejournal, a photo of brett & auntie doris when we all had dinner together. i think she meant this entry or this entry.

BUT I WASN'T THERE!! HONEST!!! if i was there, don'tcha think i wouldda visited the entire family and stayed a little longer?!?!? don'tcha think i wouldda been in the photo?? yes, brett was there. yes, he had dinner with auntie doris and uncle tim. brett was there for an apple conference as part of his uni work. the uni paid for it so he couldn't stay much longer than the conference. i did not go with him.

but so insistent was she. by the end, i just stopped arguing with her. i let her believe that i was in san francisco. i let her believe that i was a bad granddaughter and didn't bother to ring her whilst i was there. *sheesh* i'm not sure what else i could have done.

so just for the record: i did NOT go to san francisco (or any other part of america) earlier this year. i have NOT been to america since christmas holidays 2003.

anyone willing to corroborate my stand, please do so.

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dad can post!

monday, 26 september, 2005 15:50 MAT

i fixed it. dad can post to the blog now. we expect heaps now dad. :P

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auntie tammie's visit

tuesday, 20 september, 2005 12:20 MAT

this weekend, auntie tammie came to visit me. i was very glad to see her! i got to hear all about stuff at home and see some photos of my cousins. they are all grown up now. they're bigger than me!

we picked her up from the rockie airport on saturday morning and had lunch at shopping fair. then we left her at the flat whilst we went to thomas and hayley's wedding. i was sad to have to leave her all alone all night. we gave her the key to the flat and i guess she had a walk around the neighbourhood and found the supermarket and bottle-o nearby. she got her strongbow. it gave her the chance to audit the flat, i guess. to our astonishment, she was still awake when we got back from the wedding at about 23:00.

sunday morning, i took auntie to the markets and we drove around rockie. she says it reminds her of montana. we went out the spire and saw the tropic of capricorn line and big sundial there. then we met up with carey, nick, and sarah in yeppoon for a lunch of fish & chips. yum!

we got to cooberrie park just in time for the koala cuddle and snake wrap. nick & sarah had uni work, but carey went along with us. everyone got to cuddle a koala and the guys held the snake. i just wasn't keen and auntie tammie wasn't either. the kangaroos were being lazy, so they were lounging on the ground as we fed them. both deer were out in the zoo this time and we didn't have to go bush walking to find them. the wombat, well, his name is muppet. he was out again! he was most entertaining. he ran up and down the fence as we did. he charged out at us from his home. the funniest funnie of the day...

carey was running along the fence and muppet was doing the same on the other side of the fence. carey ran past the end of the cage and muppet thought he could do the same. *BAM* muppet slammed his head into the fence! poor muppet, but very funnie at the same time. it didn't seem to daze muppet too much. i guess wombats really are fast, solid creatures.

then we stopped by the singing ship in emu park. it was a nice view of the water and the ship really did sing, not very loud, but notes were being produced. we had to drop carey off, but nick had the keys to the flat. so we got to take auntie to uni and she got to see where my office used to be.

for dinner, we managed to get a spot at malcom's restaurant, but didn't realise that it had changed its name to signatures. therefore, it took us a bit to actually find the restaurant and we were late for our booking. luckily they weren't booked out or anything. it was a nice place in a hotel. yummie food! no room for dessert afterwards.

we got home and brett taught auntie how to download the photos from her digital camera to the computer. we got to see the photos from the last time auntie was here, photos from her trip to china, and the ones from the zoo. we got to catch up on the happenings of the chin family. that's always good to know, i guess... then it was time for sleeping.

on monday morning we took auntie to the airport so that she could be at work in brisbane for the week. then she was headed back to america on friday. i sent goodies back to america with her. hopefully they make it there and customs doesn't want them for themselves. it should be right. i liked having my auntie here. i can only hope we passed our chin internal audit. :P

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the ethics of employment

monday, 12 september, 2005 10:45 MAT

so i post all this stuff about everyone else... and you ask - what's up with me?? you can always go look on my separate livejournal. the link is in the sidebar too. -->>

well, i guess i don't post much about me cuz not much changes. not much can happen whilst i'm waiting for my permanent residency application to be processed. i am in a fickle as far as employment. mostly i think it's the ethics of it all...

1) i can't get any full time teaching contracts since i'm not a permanent resident yet, even short term ones. i can supply teach, so i need to go see what that's all about still. i'm really not keen.

2) i can't guarantee any potential employer that i will be here and avavilable in four months time. if i get permanent residency before christmas time, i'm definitely going home for the holidays. it's been far too long (2 years) since i've been there and the family will have my head if i don't. i have to make sure that adam doesn't forget who i am! if i don't get permanent residency, well, then i'm going home, full stop. so there is a reluctance to hire me on such short terms... i understand that. i can't apply for christmas positions since the future is so up in the air. i might be here, i might not. i can't bring myself to give the impression that i will be.

employment ethics working against me right now. *sigh*

right now is two weeks of school holidays, so no tutoring. term four starts after that to wind down the academic year, so my private tutoring will continue. i still work a few hours a week at kip mcgrath. thank goodness for that.

other than that, i have bits of a paper from my masters in the works but am waiting for the other co-authors to do their bits. i play world of warcraft problie far too much, i stitch, and i take care of brett. petrol is just horrendously priced, so i try not to drive anywhere if i don't have to. it's like $1.28 per litre these days and is likely to get worse before it gets better. i'm glad my hyundai excel is so fuel efficient.

spring has sprung, so that is good. i'm still a bit cold, but i suffer from chronic coldness syndrome so we expect that. rain is always welcome and the sun shines.

,` )

happy birthday to maya!

monday, 12 september, 2005 10:40 MAT

* * * HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MAYA! * * *

[==]--@     [==]--@     [==]--@     [==]--@     [==]--@

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a chin fiesta

monday, 12 september, 2005 10:20 MAT

the weekend of 3 september, my family had a gathering i thought might never happen. they had a fiesta! it had mexican food... mostly. my chinese family has a gathering with mexican food?!?!? that sounds fantastic!!

mum said there were several kinds of salsa and mango salsa was her favorite. they had taco makings, burrito makings, dad's famed chilli, auntie tammie's port carnie, and yer yer's curry brisket (thought that wasn't exactly mexican). gotta have something asian in there somewhere. I guess having spanish rice instead of white rice to go with curry was a bit troubling, but people used tortillas to soak up the sauce.

sounds the yum! i was a bad girl and completely forgot and didn't ring home, so i post this only based on email reports from the olds. dad said there was too much food. that part i expected. i guess that part hasn't changed, nor will it ever. hehe!

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auntie tammie coming for a visit

monday, 12 september, 2005 10:20 MAT

auntie tammie arrives in rockhampton for a visit on saturday, 17 september, 2005. we have thomas and hayley's wedding that evening, so we're gunna have to leave her around here. i'm not sure how to help entertain her whilst we're gone. she could take my car for a drive. the neighbourhood is safe during daylight hours to adventure and have a bit of a walk around. it's near to a set of shops and a pub. or she can have a good look over everything in our flat and have a glowing report when she gets back as to the condition in which i live and verify that it's not a figment of my imagination to ngan ngan and yer yer. : P

so that leaves all of sunday to visit! *cheer* i think we shall take her to the zoo. there's a nice zoo where you can hold a koala and snake (remember the photos from before) and see all sorts of other animals. we can also make a day of it at the beach (provided there's no rain), since we have to drive by there to get to the zoo anyways and have fish & chips there. yum! granted, the beach here isn't near as pretty as the ones near her office in brisbane on the sunshine coast. then - i dunno for the evening, we'll figure something out.

ha! she emails me: I'm looking forward to doing my Auntie duties and spying on you for the sake of the family! spying, smying!!

,` )

mum & dad go tandem

monday, 12 september, 2005 10:00 MAT

so mum & dad are going adventuring once again. no surprises - they make use of the perks of dad now working at rei.

A happy Saturday to all of you,

Well, Mom thought maybe a tandem bike would be a good thing since she's not much of a solo rider. So Rich, the Master Tech at REI - Tacoma, lent us his since he and his wife will be on vacation for 2 weeks. It's a Cannondale mountain tandem with disc brakes.

Today when the sun finally shined we took the bike out for a test ride. After setting the saddles to the right positions and getting the helmets adjusted, we departed from the drive way. I used the slope to gain speed and then headed up the cul de sac with Mom asking why I wanted to go uphill. We had the speed and I wanted to load test the gearing before we venture too far out. After making the turn at the top of the cul de sac we started down the street with Mom yelling to put on the brakes! We're going too fast!!

We just got started!! So I asked if she can see how fast we were going on the computer on her handlebar. She said she didn't want to look down but anyways she can't see it 'cuz my butt was too big and in the way. OK, I wasn't offended.

I then took a left and went on down the street and just allowed the bike to run. Mom is yelling that it's too fast. I had the wind in my face and felt pretty good. She was drafting and I think she can only see the surroundings zipping by and felt terrified. I'm sure we weren't doing more than 10 mph. I wanted the speed to take us up the slight incline as we make the curve. So I braked to slow us down. You guess it! Now we have to pedal harder to make the incline.

We turned right at the T and coasted to the silver bus motorhome at the end of the street. Made a turn at the intersection and started back up the now incline we just coasted down. Clicking the gears to get the right combination for the attack, Mom's wondering what's that noise. I told her I was changing the gears.

She said she didn't like riding on a tandem. It was a bad idea. She rather ride her own bike. OK, that was fair! We gave it a go and it's not what she thought it to be even though I relayed to her what Rich's wife, Susy, had told me to tell her to trust the captain in the front. That she can't go looking around the guy in front to see where she's going. And to lean with the bike when going into a turn.

So I steered us toward home coasting down the long straight stretch and then turning the curve to head for Wendy's place and home. I started to pedal since it was uphill in that section. I heard noises and felt what was like Mom putting her foot down to drag the bike to a stop. She yelled that her leg is caught in the chain. So I stopped pedaling and put on the brakes. Disc's are so nice!

Well, her left pant leg was caught in the chain and also part of her socks. After freeing the pants and socks from the chain and chain ring, there's a big rip on the pant leg and grease stains on the pants and sock. It appears that that her foot came off the pedal when I started to crank and she tried to get her foot back on the pedal. But with me pedaling, her pedals were spinning and she couldn't keep her foot on the pedals.

We walked the bike home. Mom being thankful we got a chance to try this out before buying one.

So no tandem biking for us. Mom said she couldn't see where we were going and she wasn't in control of the speed. And the view wasn't very good! Hmmm, I think that's the main reason.

Thus was our tandem experience - all 8 minutes of it.

D

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