Restructuring

It's been busy at work since after the restructuring. One of my team mates left. To be more precise, she's not really in the team. She's just with us as part of her training.

She left and a colleague asked me "How will the team cope now that she's gone?" Truthfully, it doesn't impact me at all. I don't work on the same clients with her. And to be pedantic, she's not really in our team anyway.

Other than that, it's really busy at work. I've been asked to conduct training. I went to Bangkok recently to train the new recruits. Flew by Thai airways and it was the most comfortable flight I've ever been on. I flew by business class once (and that's because the airport screwed up and transferred our luggages to the wrong plane, causing us to miss our connecting flight) and it still wasn't as comfortable. And that's because I have all 3 seats to myself! *big grinz*

However, on the way back, I still have all 3 seats to myself but just before take off, some idiot took one of my seat. And you should have seen the glare on my face. Bloody hell.. Now the flight back was one of the uncomfortable flights I've ever taken.

Canberra during long weekend

It's the long weekend because we finally got a public holiday (last public holiday was in June...). Alex and I went down to Canberra on Sunday to see Floriade, the spring flower festival.

It was quite disappointing. I had huge expectations that there will be pretty flowers, and other exciting things but it was just flowers arranged in patterns that we couldn't see because we're on the ground and not on a higher level. I could go on but long story short - I was very disappointed.

We also visited the parliament house, went inside and visited the senate and the house of representatives rooms, where as Alex said, "they have their bitch fights" [sic].

Today, we went to the Space Centre and the National Musuem of Australia. And at 2:30pm, we decided to make our way home.

My impression of Canberra is that it's very spacious with lots of green. It feels like a country side town, with no fun and lots of work. I only saw buses with no train/tram lines, and I don't think the buses come often too.

Canberra - nice quiet city but not for me.

My own contest

My own area contest will be on this Friday. And now I'm running around like a headless chicken trying to get it organised and smooth flowing.

My gosh, I never knew there's so much to do. I've been to dozens of contests and it seemed so easy but now that I'm organising my own... *tears hair out*

While I'm panicking, I suddenly remembered there is a checklist somewhere on the website that I can use. So I printed it out, and it's 5 pages long!

I may be panicking and worrying about all these little details, but at least I'm having fun organising this contest. Will let you know how it went!

Contest judge junkie

One of the perks of being area governor is judging at area contest (except your own). In the last 2 weeks, I have judged at 5 contests. In total, I have judged at 7.

They say you're always remember your first time. The first time I judged, I hardly stuck to the judging criteria. Rather picking who I thought was the winner and the runner-up off the top of my head. But 2 contests later, I've started to use the judging form effectively. And I realised that the way I view and look at the contestants has changed. I now analyse their speech structure, the words they use and their gestures. Indirectly, I feel that I've become a better speaker, just by judging.

I have a few more contests to judge before my own contest. According to the words of one of my fellow judges, "You're a contest judge junkie..."

push around - no more!

I am sick of being pushed around at work by a colleague - we'll call him R - just because he thinks I'm young, Asian and good looking.

On Friday, he pushed me around again! After crying (as usual - have to stop this bad habit) and crying and calling Alex for advice, I decided that "No, I'm not going to give in to you this time. You just have to tell the client that we can't deliver today." R also has to learn to manage the client's expectations.

I've decided that I'm not going to let my boss decide for me since this client is my responsibility not his. It's because he said "yes" that he has inadvertently allowed R to push me around, and I stupidly let him.

From now on, I will not be pushed around by ANYONE. No one is also allowed to push my teammates (esp those under me) around too. If anyone dares, he or she will have to face me... or my spokesperson since I won't be able to speak properly when I'm crying.

Fact is, from today, R will not be pushing us around for any longer. One bitten, Twice shy, Three times I bite back. *claws flashes*