Working whilst everybody is sleeping

It is very unsual for me to be up till 7am if it is not for watching good downloaded tv series or revising my head off for an upcoming paper or maybe even rushing to complete an assignment. However, this time, on both Thursday and Friday night, I had the lifetime experience (you may beg to differ) to work as a night auditor in a hotel at darling harbour. The shift was from 11pm to 7am. CHanging my body clock the day before I had to do this proved difficult, as I was doing normal hours from Mon to Wed.

It's really a whole new different game of working in dead silence. Yes there is the occasional walk-in guest checking in, or some telephone calls from guests, however for most of the other times, it was just, silence. I found it to be a very calming experience. No one to bug me or phones going off the hook everywhere in the office. Working in silence seems effective for me, except for when the droopy eye-lids start to set in at around 4am. However, I managed to pull through for both nights and I witnessed the most amazing thing ever. The city of sydney (such an amazing view from the darling harbour) lighting up naturally. At 5:30am it was still quite pitch black. 5:40am, starting to light up. 6am, completely lit up. Amazing to see a city naturally lit up.... sounds boring but when you are the ONLY person seeing the scene, it's pretty damn priceless.

My greatest feeling was that I can finish work now while the rest of the rat-racing citizens of Sydney has to go to work! I took some photos on my way back home.

The Rocks.


View of darling harbour, view from the pyrmont bridge.


Views of the city skyline from the bridge over darling harbour




Sleeping at 8am after work on a weekday is such a bloody good feeling! Man... I'm so gonna miss that feeling! All in all, a great experience :)

Slow updates again

Damn it man. When I created my blog, I wanted to update regularly so in time I can be able to look back and see a nice train of thoughts as well as activities that's been happening. However, clearly I failed! It's very frustrating to have to log into blogger and then type out what I am thinking. I prefer just ... talking it out haha.

So I'm thinking now I should put up a few pictures to keep a track of my life goings. Blogger sucks in a way that it uploads ONE BLOODY PIC at a time. It's annoying... :(

View on the Pyrmont bridge. Fantastic I know. At night it's even nicer with the lights from the offices along the river. I'll take one if I get the chance. Pictures are taken with my Iphone, standard 2mb quality so forgive if they do look amateur or grainy.

I met up with a Malaysian blogger by the name of Nicolekiss. Nice friendly as-pretty-as-her-blog-pictures blogger. She came to travel around australia and happened to stop by Sydney, and she wanted to meet up with her readers. So I contacted her and went for the dinner, very random of me to do so but hey how else can I make new friends right? If you never try you never know :P

This picture was taken a few days ago at one of the hotel I am working in. This is in the storeroom, and this is only a quarter of the storeroom maybe? It's the archives storeroom. Paperwork for audit purposes - kept up to 3 years. After that they get sent away to a storage facility off-site. I CRINGE when I see boxes of paper, and I CRINGE even more if I have to go thorugh them!

I need one of those masks that cleans out the air that goes in....

*sigh*. part and parcel of the job eh...

Ok so lazy to update hahaha. This is Tom, my landlord's black labrador. He is such an adorable little (ok maybe x3) creature. Just sits there quietly while I eat. This is the first dog I've seen in my life that doesn't pitifully begs me with it's eye action... for food! TOM :)

Another picture of the pyrmont bridge across the Darling Harbour. Sydney has got so many breathtaking views, but at the same time it's such a pain for me to be here sometimes. My good ol' days in Melbourne. :(

I am training at hotels in this picture for this week. The highlight would be the night audits that is part of the training. 11pm to 7am, no kidding. No JOKE. Seriously, I did one shift last night and believe me, my body started to shake softly at 3am. There was a bed at the reception because they were doing a 'road-show' for the new pullman hotel at the olympic park, and I SO WANTED to be on it snoring away. Nice warm white linens and soft pillows and deluxe bed. Snoozee....... I got to go home at 5am woo hoo which was marvellous because the night audit guy can tell my head was going to give way any minute! View at 5am of the darling harbour, simply breath-taking. but my Iphone can't capture it's entirety, and so nothing to show here.

Alright, small update but still an update nonetheless. My 2nd and final night shift tonight, so I better get some rest before it starts. Signing off!

The video says it all

Extracted from The Star Friday August 22, 2008
PM quietly takes public transport to experience commuters’ problems

KUALA LUMPUR: Setting aside protocol, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took rides on the commuter and LRT rail services from Serdang to the city centre yesterday to get a feel of the transport problems faced by the public and came away less than satisfied.

Where’s the train? Abdullah waiting with other passengers at the Serdang Komuter station yesterday. This is a daily routine for the commuters, who complained to the Prime Minister about poor train services. — Bernama
Throughout the one-hour journey, during which he switched trains, the Prime Minister noted the congestion, especially during the peak period, and spoke to his fellow passengers to get feedback.

Speaking to Bernama after disembarking at the Masjid Jamek LRT station, he said he was not satisfied and wanted immediate improvements to be made.
He said the existing services were not systematic, there were not enough coaches and coverage was not comprehensive, leaving many areas not serviced.
“I just saw the plight of people using the trains to get to work every morning. They were jostling to get on board every time a train arrived. There appeared to be no system.
“I’m not happy with this because the people are not getting satisfaction from riding the trains. This we must fix,” he said.
“I found the trains really packed. Some had waited for three trains and yet could not board.
Outstanding problem: Abdullah (in red batik shirt) preferring to stand like other passengers who cannot find a seat during the journey from Serdang to the city centre yesterday. — Bernama
“There’s no queue. People push their way in, women with children and old people are pushed aside,” he added.
Abdullah, who was unaccompanied by officials from the two rail services, arrived at the Serdang Komuter KTM station at 8.15am but could not get on board the first train that arrived because it was packed.
He got on the next train that came 15 minutes later and headed for KL Sentral, the transport hub for the various rail services.

There he also had to wait a while to switch to the Putra LRT service to get to the Masjid Jamek station because, again, the first train to arrive was full.
On both the trains that he took, the prime minister, dressed in a red batik shirt with gold print, stood although passengers offered him their seats.
Upon arrival at the Masjid Jamek station at 9.15am, he chatted with members of the public and bought local cakes from the sellers there before leaving.
Abdullah said he would give attention to efforts to improve the quality of both rail services.

This is my first blog post and this has to be in my first blog post!

This article is just so funny I don't know where to start.

I just can't believe ALL THESE YEARS.... why hasn't the PM "tried" to board the train until now in the year of 2008?! Gosh, will we ever achieve 2020 with such transportation speed? Maybe we can achieve 2020 by 2050! The system has sucked since God knows when. Maybe when I was born? My gong gong's mazda (1980s) is even faster than ktm.

OMG. KTM must be feeling very 'paiseh' from this small little incident. I BET they'll probably send an extra carriage for the serdang line tomorrow. Only ONE extra carriage. Because otherwise they'll have to increase the fare by RM0.10! Expensive to run on electricity you know....

Can somebody tell me why the ktm is so slow? Somewhere like Kepong where it's all bushes and vast lands and it's still as slow as it travels when it is in the city. As though the train isn't slow enough, it always stops all of a sudden without any "annoucement" from the conductor. Stop for what? Chickens to cross the tracks?

Ok enough of babbling about that news article. So over it already. Fingers crossed, by the time I return to Malaysia which is in a few months time, hopefully they'll add more service to my ulu Kepong area! Hello I need to go Pavillion and Sungei Wang ok! Kepong is so boring, and without a car of your own, even "chiu kap" boring.

Maybe that's why I choose to live in the city here.