One day to go and I can enjoy my weekend again. Six-day weeks are really tough and I feel sorry for those people who have to do them all the time. Then being in back to back meetings today and not getting any lunch until 4pm was quite draining. I am so glad I am not like my moslem colleagues who are fasting at the moment. Seeing them all rush to the canteen at sunset to break their fasts is quite a scene every day, at least the company is accommodating enough to let them do that.

Can tell I am tired when I even start losing enthusiasm for the news translations every day. Usually I don't mind it because I can type quite quickly and get them out of the way, but for some reason my fingers don't seem to be listening to me and I keep makig skilly tying mystakes. I am surprised my backspace key hasn't packed its bags and left me the amount of time I use it and I can feel a little mound developing on my 'backspace finger' due to overuse. Oh well, at least we had some Roger coverage today - makes up for my hard work. It seems that in the run up to the TVB anniversary, there has been so much news to do every day, what with new series and the sales presentations. Some of the new shows seem very promising - I just hope that they manage to materialise in the end. Roger's new show "Gak Sai Jui Hung" is probably the one I would most like to watch at the moment, time-travelling murder mystery is about as original as TVB can get. Now to sort out the small problem of me not being able to get my hands on new series after the new year. Drat!! I hope I don't have to resort to subscribing to the overly expensive TVBE service.

It's Halloween tonight, but it's a pretty quiet affair in the UK. I don't think we are as fanatical about ghouls and ghosts as our American counterparts. Even the "Halloween Fun Day" we supposedly had at work today was downright dismal. Then again, I was far too busy to notice. There was one guy who turned up with his face painted and a green wig on, think he must have felt a bit out of place when everyone else was walking around in jeans. Not even many kids out trick or treating either, our little pile of sweets has not been touched - but I think that has something to do with it being minus 2 degrees out this evening! I know where I'd rather be...

Haha this is rather cute!

I leave you with this rather paradoxical phrase: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

So much for going swimming again on Monday, have to go into work instead. Oh well, means I'll be raking in some overtime to go towards my holidays. Although we won't be going for another four months yet, I'm starting to get excited about it, probably because it gives me something to focus my efforts on. The prime candidate location wise at the moment is Singapore and Malaysia, but knowing how changeable my hubby is, there's no guarantees yet. I'm not really bothered as long as I get away.... need a break!

Been catching up on my TVB watching today with Armed Reaction IV. I didn't really pay much attention to the first three, so I am glad that it's quite a good series in its own right. Apart from the silly childish antics between Bobby and Ada, the series is pretty good. I particularly like the family relationship issues with Marco and Joyce, it has a couple of nice touches and a sense of normality about it all. Even the most perfect family unit has problems and it's well portrayed. I seem to be watching series in big chunks at a time nowadays. I guess the work generated by keeping the news site going is taking up the time I would normally have spent watching TV... not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but I guess it's good for my readers.

Aww ... thanks to everyone who has been so concerned about me. My arms were a lot better after a good nights sleep and apart from the odd muscle that has been dragged unwillingly out of redundancy that is still twinging a bit, I am feeling okay today. And guess what... I am ready to head back soon to get myself moving again.

I was a bit lazy (and loathe to lifting my arms) to put my hair up in a pony tail today to go to work, so I just left it hanging onto my shoulders. A colleague asked me when I had hair extensions done! I guess people don't realise how long your hair actually is when you keep it tied back all the time. I'm pondering over whether to cut my hair again, it will be useful for my swimming I guess, not to mention get my hubby off my back about it being too long. Most men like girls with long hair - he must be the exception to the rule.

Another rather odd occurrence today was a Chinese customer called in and ended up talking to my colleague. Unfortunately, my colleague speaks about as much Cantonese as this guy could speak English, so he came running downstairs to ask for my help in speaking to this customer and explain his phone bill to him. Speaking Chinese on a day to day basis with friends and relatives is one thing, but I've never been trained in speaking Chinese to someone in a professional customer orientated way, so this was quite a challenge! Luckily, I managed to bluff my way through and this guy was so impressed he asked if he could speak to me next time as he called in. As I'm not in a customer facing role at the moment, I just said that if he had problems he could ask to speak to a Chinese person. Well, he stands a pretty good chance of getting me again seein' as there are only four Chinese people who work in my building and my hubby and I make up 50% of them!

Wonder if I should ask the company for more money seeing as I am utilising "additional language skills" - hahaha.....

Brr... it's chilly tonight and my duvet is calling me! Toodle pip!

Well, I kept my promise to myself and finally dragged myself off to the swimming pool today. After fifteen minutes and about four lengths of the pool, I couldn't feel my arms. Surprisingly, my legs and lower back are fine, not even a twinge.... pity I can't say the same about my upper arms, shoulders and chest muscles that are all complaining at me at the moment and going on strike. I feel like someone's just battered my upper body with a stick. I hope it gets better after a few sessions, don't know how much more of this I can stand! (Yes, I am getting weak in my old age....)

Aaaargh the pain....... I'd better carry on another time, I don't think sitting typing at a keyboard is doing my muscles any good.

Haha so much for packing up and going to sleep - I've discovered a comments function (thanks to Blur and her blog) for visitors to talk to me about my personal blog instead of using that blasted tagboard on the TVB site. How nice to have a direct line to Em!

Eagerly waiting to see if anyone is actually reading this .....
*waiting*
*waiting*
*waiting*

Ahh forget it - off to bed!

Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!
Finally, I can do no study and not feel guilty about it!
Today's paper was pretty tough, it was more like a philosophy paper rather than management. There's a chance I'll probably have to resit, but as my results don't come out until December then there is no point in fretting about it now. May as well enjoy indulging in all this spare time I have.

Did some serious shopping today, well the most serious I have done for a while, which isn't actually *that* serious considering how scroogy I can be with money. Firstly I hit Chinatown to gather a stash of TVB magazines. Then I hit Manchester City Centre where I bought some socks, some gloves, some printer paper, a newspaper for 10p and a Peking Duck Tortilla that left a horrible aftertaste. I also reminded myself how I dislike drinking Oasis - it's back to the own brand lemonade next time. Then this evening headed out to the Trafford Centre to do even more shopping where I bought myself some trousers for work and a new shirt in the sales. Okay, I am not one to splash out on buying clothes, but you gotta admit 2 pairs of trousers and a shirt for £37 isn't bad going - PLUS I don't even have to alter them, that isn't bad when you consider the length (or lack of it) of my legs!

Then after a quick dinner, hubby and I headed up to the cinema where we tried to buy some tickets for Finding Nemo. Unfortunately the machine spat the card out saying there were no tickets left. So we headed up to the box office where the board said that there were tickets left. Then we looked at the queue and there were three hundred kids and their parents in the queue. Okay, maybe Friday evening in half term week wasn't the best time to go and watch a cartoon. We decided to head back and watch it some other time.

After the initial excitement of finishing my studying, I am now feeling kinda empty.... like my soul is searching for something to do. Maybe this is what the Cantonese refer to as "jeen gwat tou" - you have to be working to feel comfortable! Oh well, back to work tomorrow before I enjoy my weekend.

Well, that's one paper out of the way and in just over 13 hours time I can happily wave goodbye to this course.... well, provided I pass and don't have to do resits in April, but that's another matter. Thing is tomorrow is essay paper and seein' as I still have three books worth of information to absorb and regurgitate, then I better not spend too much time on here.

My hubby's gonna take me to see Finding Nemo tomorrow - really looking forward to it as I am a pretty big fan of animated films. (Well, who isn't?) I've been told by my friends from across the pond that it's a really good film, so it will be something nice to look forward to after my stupid exams and before I head back to my desk at work on Saturday. Unfortunately, my colleague's aversion to working weekends means that I have to cut short my leave by a day and go in straight after my exams. Bleah... not fun! Oh well, at least I then have Sunday and Monday off as a proper weekend.

The new exercise regime starts on Monday...... I am getting so unfit, it's worrying!

And my hubby pulled out my first white hair last night! Nooooooooo..............

Old age creeps up on me so fast!!

Aarrrrrrrrgh......... that Charlie Brown feeling is coming back, but this time it's when Lucy is holding the football for him, but every time he goes to kick it, she pulls it away and he ends up on his back.

Revision has ground to a halt and even after a couple of hours of retail therapy, my motivation is still at an all time low. At least I am not as stressed about it as much as I was yesterday, my fear of failure caught up with me yesterday and it wasn't very nice. Thanks to the special guy in my life, I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that even if I fail these exams, I will not have lost anything. That's putting my mind at ease a little. I guess I am just not quite cut out for studying any more, it must be a sign of old age setting in........... eek!!

Bought some Christmas cards today on my jaunt into town, for once I am getting them early rather than suddenly realising in mid-December that I haven't sent my cards yet and the last day of posting was yesterday! Even popped into Index and picked up a few catalogues to start leafing through for present ideas, but it looks like another year of picking out pressies on the internet because I really can't face fighting with the crowds. Talking of crowds, I got the bus back from town today just as the college finished at 3:30 this afternoon and about a million college students crowded onto the bus - it was so noisy! I thought to myself that I couldn't remember the last time I had been in such a noisy environment. How relieved I was when I stepped off that bus!

Labels: buses, shopping

Aah what better way to procrastinate than to revamp the layout for this blog... after all it is trendy to do so nowadays.

Yikes!
I think there's someone setting off fireworks outside.... jeez not quite bonfire night yet! Better put my music back on to stop myself from getting a heart attack!!

Wah! Two whole weeks, with most of it sitting aimlessly at a PC and not a scratch on my blog. Oh dear...

Thanks to the sudden enthusiasm of some of my internet friends to start up blogs of their own, it has inspired me to catch up on my own personal blog here. About time too, I hear you cry! That is if you haven't given up listening to me talking to myself on here all the time. If you are interested, curious or just bored and wanna check out the other blogs then click here: lepra's brouhaha and Rocketjim's Gas Station - oh, not forgetting blu'prints and Off our Rockers
They're all done by people on a similar frequency to myself, so they might be a bit crazy... 'twas funny one evening when we all met up on MSN on a friday evening, spread across an 9 hour timespan and all feeling very sad with nowhere to go! hahaha....

October has been a rather odd month for me this year. After a week and a half off looking after my parents' business, I pop back into work to say HI for a few days before taking more time off to face my exams this week. I bet my colleagues are pleased with me.. hehehe... oh well, I am sure they will get their own back on my when I am back in work properly in a weeks time. I can picture it now.... Em and her two team colleagues in a glass room: "Here are you action points for this week......... (three hours later).... and that's it, any questions?" Eek!

That's the least of my worries at the moment. I am currently faced with the task of revising and absorbing ten books and two CD-ROM's worth of material so I can regurgitate it at my exams on Thursday and Friday. Not fun at all, especially as my motivation levels are at an all time low.... I guess that the exam not having any meaning to it other than self-satisfaction doesn't help either. Once again I ask myself whatever possessed me to take this course. Why didn't I do the non-sensible thing 18 months ago and spend the money on a big holiday or something like that?

Aah holidays!! That's a nicer thought! Trying to find somewhere to head to in February or March next year to use up the last week of holidays that I have left. The wonder of the internet gives me so many ideas.... at first I was looking at the Caribbean Islands because there are a lot of offers at the moment for weeks in Barbados and Antigua, but then I saw US and Canada .... then started looking at South East Asia before checking my budget and rethinking. Found a cheap break to the Czech Republic, but got a bit put off by the thought of cold weather so moved back to the Mediterranean and looked at a week in a Spa Resort in Malta. After all that, I think my hubby wants to just go to Hong Kong and stuff ourselves silly for a week.... oh well, we'll see. I don't think either of us really minds as long as we get away. We both need a break - desperately!! Better get that overtime in to pay for the trip though! More work..... great! bleah!

Hmm... hubby's out for more curry tonight. I decided to give it a miss... sometimes tinned macaroni cheese tastes better than anything you get outside!