Oh so hard...
I find myself in a very strange position, it is now the time for law graduate recruitment in Sydney...and as expected there has been a flood of applications to my firm, all budding wide-eyed potential lawyers and law grads all competiting with each other in a "dog eat dog" business of getting offers from the firms (I too was like that so I should know the pressures, frustration, and fears :P...believe me, it is scary). Anyway to help out I have been allocated some CVs and covering letters to look through and its kinda weird having read thru (some of them) after having written so many yourself and pretty much picking up on things (got to be ruthless due to the high number of applicants and limited positions available) that other people have written and think to yourself in a *sceptical* mind about their intentions, how much research about the firm did they actually do, how does one applicant's results compare to another's or their CCA, etc. I am taking it seriously as I know these potential lawyers to be futures are in my hands so to speak (of course they may get offers from other firms), and spaces are so limited in the law field in Sydney that really hmmm....well it just feels weird that you could be thinking to yourself: is this what my assessor at firm XXX thought of my covering letter, results, CV, etc before rejecting my application? so weird...
For example, one of the applicants applied to the wrong firm! thats so obvious a mistake and a clear sign of a covering letter template (not a good start :P), but who hasn't done such a thing before...I mean its easier said than done, but all law firms always seem the same and are interested in the same things/characteristics, so its hard to 'customise' much or distinguish your covering letter from others :P oooh...so hard!
So wish me luck my readers, and hopefully I would select the good ones and not break too many hearts :P (as mine was when I receive those 'letters' in the mail :P) sigh...
My roomies are back
My roomies (Ant, Marissa and JB) are finally back from their month long oddessey to HK and Vietnam :) Plenty of happy memories, memorable experiences, delicious foods and cheap cheap shopping and pampering all diligently recorded on Ant's blog ;).
I survived on a month long supply of instant noodles ;) haha, the internet, tv series and of course had Lil for company :)...I had the house to myself and it was pretty cool to you know have all the freedom in the house when you can do anything and not have to worry about your other housemates :) good time good times. Having said that it is good to have those guys back tho, as now the house is not as quiet as before (especially at night..JB is back to his usual position on the couch and late night Letterman is on haha)
On another note, last Thurs, Lori, Q, Lish, Brad, Iris and myself went to the Grace Hotel where they were holding some chocolate fair, where they served these delicious belgian or swiss ie. boutique
chocolate deserts (girls you can stop drooling now...ahaha). Not good for the waistline but all good for the experience (and taste!)...company was also good and entertaining as well : )
Chocolate waffles with ice-cream and chocolate sauce (delicious...my favourite)
Chocolate Pina Cota (spelling?) with berries and baked bananas...so rich and smooth ;)
Chocolate pudding with ice-cream...the gals just loved this one! and it was one of the first to finish :P
In addition we also ordered chocolate fondue...chocolate overload!!! could have just eaten the chocolate out of the fondue bowl, yes it was that nice...a good way to end the day after dinner
This was only for a limited time only (sorry readers) for the month of April...but who knows, it may occur again (can count on the girls to keep updated on that part haha)
One of my breakfasts for whilst my roomies were away - a stack of homemade pancakes (made by Lil), with bananas, ice-cream and honey...yummm....nothing like hot homemade pancakes on a Sat morning :)
Tickets to Waratahs game!
Was bored on Fri with nothing to do :P luckily my friend (who worked for HSBC) had a couple of spare tickets to the Rugby Union game (NSW Waratahs v Otago Chiefts of NZ). Note: HSBC is the principal sponsor of the Waratahs...so as a result we got really really good seats!! (see circled below...we were right at the mid way section..where you could see both sides of the action) Such a change from the last time I went to Aussie stadium (see previous post) ahhaa
Gold category seats!!! Perfect view of everything
Got the tickets :)
As its my custom, made a small small bet on the game...so that at least I got something to cheer about (as its NSW playing...so got no motivation for either team, but hey they were good tickets and my friend was nice enough to give them to me :) and feel passionate about...go the Tahs!!!
Had good company :)
Could see all the action (on both sides of the field)
And the result, well unfortunately the Tahs didn't win :( they lost in the last minute to a last grasp try (no money for me :( )...they were having a terrible season and it was their last home game for the year...oh well, better luck next year.
On another note, we both had a good time (eating junk food at the game and watching a pretty exciting match, it was pretty close most of the way) and the Sydney weather was good...pefect for a night at the rugby!
Blue Mountains Pt 2
As part of my surprise birthday present, I planned a trip to the blue mountains with Lil last weekend. She cannot remember if she has ever been to the Blueys (she is a Sydney girl!!! how come?!!?), so it was a 'new' experience for her :) haha...Anyway, nothing much has changed in the blue mountains and the activities are pretty much the same as per last time I was there (see the 3 sisters...and errr...thats about it ;P haha) it was a prety much a very relaxing weekend trip for the both of us :).
The one thing that did change however, is that as part of Lil's birthday I made reservations at this very nice resturant in the blue mountians called
Solitary - which was given 2 chef's hats out of 3 by the Sydney Good Food Guide 2007 (ie. pretty good)
(http://www.solitary.com.au) Here is what we had... (oh no..food pictures are coming up!)
Entree: Crepinette of duck confit and prosciutto with green pea custard and grape and balsamic reduction (basically shredded duck wrapped in a fried ham...delicious)
Main course (DQ): Braised hare (rabbit) agrodolce with pine-nuts, Armagnac soaked sultanas (a pasta type dish...it was a decent serving of rabbit and pretty large too)
Main course (Lil): Lamb charlotte with potatoe and semolia gnocchi (good choice dish...and highly recommended...I loved it! haha)
We stayed in the same place I stayed in last time (I quite like the place) a very nice quaint and homely bed and breakfast...the hosts were nice and would even cook us a delicious and huge big breakfast the following morning :)
Nothing much more to say really, except that this time it was a pretty relaxing weekend (mainly coz we were both happy just to stay in the one place and not rush about everywhere) with minimum fuss and sight seeing. The weather was perfect as well...good autumn weather :)
Matching Eagles!!!
Hey Eagles
Hey Eagles
We're flying high ...
We're flying high ...
We're the Eagles - the West Coast Eagles
And we're here to show you why
We're the big birds,
Kings of the big game
We're the Eagles,
We're flying high!
Thank you to my Maz for the lovely 'well thought' of birthday present ;) haha...
Depressing
I have just been reading some of my friends' blogs (and their friends) whom are all auditors at PwC in Singapore...coincidentally all their latest posts is about the complaints of the job and about how this weekend they going to work, the backlog/follow-up in work, double bookings, unhelpful/mean clients, pressure from manager and partners, appraisals, etc. Please don't take this the wrong way my friends...They all sound depressing, especially since I can sense from the tone of your posts the depression, frustration, bo-chupness, hopeless acceptance of the situation and then compare it to my work/lifestyle here :P. Makes me feel like maybe my decision is still the best one I have made (irregardless of the money/salary aspect of it all :P) so far...These are just my prima facie thoughts of the moment as I am trying to waste some time...
Many Birthdays...
From my previous post - The surprise was a Success!!! :) totally unexpected and very much appreciated ;) does leave you with a nice warm feeling to know that all your effort has made someone so unexpectedly happy :)
Quote:
"was expecting this much...you gave me this much (higher), but then surprised me with this much (much higher)" So anyway here is a quick summary of what I did last weekend...
Fri: Some of my office colleagues at a couple of their birthday lunches in a CBD resturant...very trendy bunch of lawyers haha ;)
At that lunch, I saw this 'celebrity'...now he is like a Germit Singh...a host, entertainer, etc he use to be the weatherman on this morning TV show that I would watch (for the latest news of course ;) in the morning before going to work and he always did crazy/fun things...his name is Grant Denier and he was the winner of Australian
Dancing with the Stars...he is soooo short...tiny and like a little kid :) hey thats my memory haha...
At night, went to another birthday party, this time at Darling Harbour... Quite the normal kind of thing...drinking and mingling and small talk. Most of the people there were from Dragon Boat (and of course asking me when I was going next for their next rowing/training session (soon soon...I keep telling them...maybe next Sunday...ohh...with volleyball the previous night, my arms will definitely be sore on the Mon haha). Also that night, we ate Mongolian food (lots of lamb and very errr...fatty type of dishes, I guess its because its usually very cold in Mongolia, there is a need to develop lots of warmth fat! :) it was pretty tasty and unique...like a mixture of different cusines. Unfortunately I don't have any photos as they were uninspiring :P
On Saturday, we went to
Rise - which is one of the better Japanese resturants in Sydney (Leo - you have probably already been there ;)...ate sooo much food...the degustation menu only costs $60 pp and had like 7 courses! Delicious..and good value too especially for Sydney fine dining ; ) Will definitely bring visitors looking for good Japanese food to this place (located quite close to the heart of Sydney)...never ate so much before at a fine dining resturant haha..
Some of the courses: fresh sushimi (tuna, trout, kingfish, snapper) and tempura linfish with scallop...(notice the very large plate with a small dish in the middle :P...typical
Next day (Sunday) was another birthday :P this time at a Yum Cha place @ Rhodes (strongly suggested by me! since I lived so close to it haha). This time it was with Lil's uni friends...whom showered here with lots of Hello Kitty merchandise :P haha...
Then after lunch, it was back to Maz's place for a friendly competition of Ninendo Wii and Singstar (boys v girls...won't tell you who won :P haha)
Overall a very celebratory type of weekend ;)
Planning again...
*random thought* Yep...its been awhile since I have planned a Birthday (not counting trips or anything) or prepared stuff for someone ;) Almost forgot the warm thought, good feeling, and the surprise/joy on their faces when they open their presents, its almost more suspenseful for me! haha... (to match the effort you put in) *fingers crossed*
Perth Easter trip
Just got back from my quick Easter long weekend trip (Thur-Mon) from Perth. Nothing special about it, except just to catch up with family and play golf. Due to the time constraint, I didn't really have time to catch up with all or most of my friends :( oh well, will keep that for another day haha...
Did really nothing special on this trip, except play 3 games of golf straight over 3 days! The first game was my best one (according to my dad) I have ever played...5 pars and lots of bogeys...all at Kennedy Bay, a beautiful yet very challenging course (I am serious). Also the weather during my stay there was just perfect (as opposed to Syd, where I heard it was pouring down with rain at the time :P good timing!)
Just look at this huge colourful spider I saw when walking around the golf course...it was so striped and colourful ;) and oh...it was just huge! and stitting in the middle of its web, needless to say I didn't go walking through the bush looking for any lost balls after that! haha
Here I am with my brother...at a WC Eagles home game @ Subiaco oval! Now this is another highlight of the trip...and thanks to a wonderful and well thought of surprise by Lil, I got 4 tickets to the game! (now just FYI...it is pretty much impossible to get any general tickets to a home WC Eagles game unless you are a season member...and the waiting list for season membership has been estimated to be 3-4 years long!) My mum and dad went along with us...yes that is because the tickets were so hard to get!! Those empty seats you see in the photo filed up pretty fast :)
The result? The Eagles won (by 12 points)!!! that makes it 2 games that I have watched and 2 games the Eagles won...more importantly I was surrounded by loyal and passionate West Australians (as opposed to last week when I was surrounded by Sydney supporters) there was a sea of blue and gold! Please see slideshow below for more pictures of my trip haha...
The Eagles game was on a Saturday, and on Sunday I played more golf and relaxed. On Monday (my last day in Perth :( ) I manage to get into contact with my good HS friend and next door neighbour...Adrian (whom I thought was still in Kalgoorli at the time) and a basketball game at our old high school was organised. Suey is pretty cool :) and he's getting married in Dec 07 (Congratulations!) another reason to come back to Perth again :) The picture on the right shows us outside my house ready for a bball session with the guys. Recently, my old high school tore down the basketball and tennis courts (*shock)...however admist the rumours that nothing else would be done about it...they did (*thankfully) and built new and bigger courts! (*yeah!)...and to my surprise my old basketball gang was there! (mostly made up of ex-HS students my year and juniors). It was a good game and good run for me (felt so unfit as compared to my HS days ahaha) and we played till the sun sets..just like good old times! (there were no lights still!...oh well :P)
This is the shot of the day (see the moon?)...ahhh...memories! We have been like playing basketball in our area since those HS days...over 10 years now!!! the area may have changed but everyone is the same and we still hang out and shoot hoops together :) sigh...I miss Perth :P
oh well...its back to Sydney and another life ;)
I find myself in a very strange position, it is now the time for law graduate recruitment in Sydney...and as expected there has been a flood of applications to my firm, all budding wide-eyed potential lawyers and law grads all competiting with each other in a "dog eat dog" business of getting offers from the firms (I too was like that so I should know the pressures, frustration, and fears :P...believe me, it is scary). Anyway to help out I have been allocated some CVs and covering letters to look through and its kinda weird having read thru (some of them) after having written so many yourself and pretty much picking up on things (got to be ruthless due to the high number of applicants and limited positions available) that other people have written and think to yourself in a *sceptical* mind about their intentions, how much research about the firm did they actually do, how does one applicant's results compare to another's or their CCA, etc. I am taking it seriously as I know these potential lawyers to be futures are in my hands so to speak (of course they may get offers from other firms), and spaces are so limited in the law field in Sydney that really hmmm....well it just feels weird that you could be thinking to yourself: is this what my assessor at firm XXX thought of my covering letter, results, CV, etc before rejecting my application? so weird...
