Weekend Report

Why the Weekend Report?

So many things happened in the last week and I didn't get to blog about it individually, so here is a summary of what happened in the last week!

The BIGGEST news is that

I FINALLY GOT A PERMANENT POSITION IN MY COMPANY!

I was getting worried for a while, as I was on contract til the end of Feb 07, and they did not give me notice as to whether they still wanted me to stay on. The thing was that they did not ask me to leave, but did not provide me with a permanent letter of offer. So I was kind of in limbo for a while. This was mainly due to the syndrome known as "Big Company HR Inefficiency" but now that it has been resolved, I shall harp on it no more. Just glad that I have a permanent position with more responsibilities and slightly higher pay. It was sort of good timing too as the perks of being a permanent staff member started rolling in this week. The Company is organising a staff conference at a BBEEEAUUTTIFUULL location in Queensland (Hyatt, 5 star resort, private beach, free meals and booze, you know the works) and I would not have been able to go if I was on contract. So 2 weeks from now, I will be at the resort swimming with dolphins!!!!

Have a look at the resort!

http://coolum.regency.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp
Not bad eh?

I know, I know, I'm such a show off! Just think of me next Tuesday morning when you are on the rickety City Snail train to work, ok?

Last Saturday was declared as M&M day, so it was a day for only me and Matt. We sort of always set aside a day once every 2 months to do something simple or special, so yesterday was a dinner and movie night for us.And because I refuse to pay bloody $16 for a movie in the city, we decided to trudge down to the economical university student suburb of Randwick for our dinner and movie.

We went to this restaurant called Lebanon and Beyond (yeah, tell me about it....another classic restaurant name) for some wog tucker. Ordered Lebanese sausages (can't go wrong with sausages) and a meat platter consisting of shish kebab, grilled steak, tabbouleh, deep fried cauliflower and hummus. I know deep fried cauliflower sounds so weird but it was absolutely the most delicious way of doing vegetables. Even Matt, who is a ferocious carnivore, worshipped it! There was unlimited Leb bread to wrap them up, and it only cost us about $37, fairly cheap considering the amount of meat they were forcing upon us! Matt and me left the restaurant looking like pregnant middle aged men.

We then walked over the the Randwick Ritz cinema to watch a movie. The cinema looked really old and looked like it was on the verge of collapsing, and had the world's most uncomfortable seats. But with a $10 ticket price, how could you say no? Matt wanted to watch this movie called Freedom Writers, cos he's into these sort of movies. I was like " Ok, another Dangerous Mind, another Dead Poet's Society, another Mr Holland's Opus...yawn.....". I was pleasantly surprised! It was a good movie bordering on great! Hillary Swank blew me away and while I'm not a fan of urban music, the sound track was pretty good. The story is about this first time teacher being sent to a high school in Long Beach which was part of a reform program instigated by the US government after the L.A. race riots. This school used to be a very highly placed school, but after the riots was changed to include more students from different races, i.e. the blacks, latinos, asians. Integration, they called it, but it resulted in worsening racial segregation. As you would expect, these students are not really into school, more into gang warfare, drugs etc and this real life story tells of how the teachr struggled to bring out the best of them, through unique teaching methods (which earned her the scorn of her colleagues). Check out the trailer below. Also check this website. http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/.

Whilst I have not been a victim of racial vilification myself, I can draw many parallels of the storyline against what’s happening in Sydney, where racial tolerance is preached but subtle racism is rampant in the mass media. Over the top political correctness may have unwittingly caused us to be more racist now than ever. I cringe now when I walk past a large group of loud talking Lebanese youths, even though they may not be doing anything significant to harm or provoke me. Yet when I walk past a group of loud talking Chinese youth, I don’t cringe. I’m not racist, but my actions do appear to make me one. Why? Because I am bombarded with images from TV everyday that seem to associate all forms of crime with people of that race? The media certainly has a huge amount of power in shaping people’s minds and attitudes, but all they are really interested in is how many copies of papers they can sell that day.

Sometimes I think we let our emotions play with our minds too much. Here, we get pissed off with our friends because of what they say and do. Over there, they get killed for it. Maybe we don’t realise how lucky we are to be able to see our friends everyday and not suddenly lose one in drive by shooting (or maybe thats not so impossible in Sydney after all). I think its time to be selfish, no more getting involved in petty dramas of who’s right and who’s wrong. Its time I started enjoying the company of happy people. The angry ones can fight their own battles.

Now to happier news. My two good friends in Singapore Gordon and Yuly who got married a couple of years ago just produced a cute little baby girl called Chloe! I felt strangely excited (not normally excited about babies). Last saw Yuly in Nov and she was sporting a small bump in her tummy. So Chloe and I have been introduced then but we haven’t officially met yet! Saw a baby clothing shop at EastGardens the other day with all the cute little dresses and pants…..I think I might make a trip down to get Chloe a surprise gift!

And I have to blog more often to prevent mass blogging like this. I know the attention span of my readers....