The Last Two Days in Under 30 Minutes (Hopefully)

On Monday I went to work early and I came home early, too. Daylight savings time had come into Australia and New Zealand, so from now on I am starting work earlier and ending work earlier, too.

I also got my roster. It said I had to be at work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, all at 6am. I asked my supervisor about this and he said that I could come at 7am on the weekdays, so that was nice.

Work was okay. About halfway through I started to get sleepy, but I made it to the end of the day and when I went home I was in bed fairly early. I just finished watching The Infidel (I had begun watching it in the morning) and then I went to bed at 10pm. I had done my exercises long before my shower. I should do that more often, it takes so much less time to go from doing things to being in bed when I'm on the computer.

Tuesday I woke up a bit late. Later on in the day I changed my alarm tone from "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" to the opening music from CSI: Miami (YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAH!). Anyway, I got to work at around 7am, but I had to wait outside the doors for fifteen minutes before somebody showed up who could tag me in.

I worked through the day. Halfway through my nine-and-a-half hours (right after lunch, I think), I felt really tired and my performance suffered. It also suffered because I got a lot of calls from people whose phones all had this same problem whereby I would hear everything I said a few seconds after I said it. Hannah was right, I am bloody annoying. I couldn't concentrate with me talking in my ears all the time. Some people got quite upset.

Also I answered a call from a French guy in France. I could not help but smile at his accent. It was so amazingly... French. And not the sexy French that Amanda would probably be thinking about, but the frog's-legs-and-surrender-and-cheese-and-w(h)ine-and-effeminate type of French. I'm sure he was a nice guy, it's just that his accent was too French for me to hold a straight face and it was also too strong for me to help him with his problem, so I stumbled through the French HP page until I found the number for the French call centre and directed him there. I'd like to think his call was picked up by a typical Indian call centre, except everyone there wore berets and pretentious moustaches and spoke wit ze... ow you say... eavy French ixaunt.

After work I got my contract. There are large chunks of it devoted to patents and inventions. At the end it says that the terms I agree to will survive the termination of my employment, which sounds pretty sinister.

I drove to Amanda's house and we went to Devi's with Milan. Our conversation was about penises and masturbation and a little about other things but right now those two things are the only topics I can remember. In two weeks' time, Milan and Amanda will be buying me ice-cream. October twelfth. Start saving, you two.

Milan went home and Amanda and I went to pick up Geraldine from tuition. She thought that Aunty Rosie's car was Amanda's car. When I clarified things for her, Amanda and she simultaneously asked why my maid had a car. My answer to them was "Why wouldn't my maid have a car?"

When we reached Amanda's house I took Walker on a walk so that she could pee because Amanda couldn't do it because she had to pee. After the walk we went inside and then we went out again so Amanda's mother could run some errands. Meanwhile, Amanda and I stayed in the car and talked about domestic abuse after hearing that one Eminem song on the radio.

When we got back I stole the remote control so that we could watch world news instead of E! News. I tried to educate Amanda's family on how Kim Jong Un is a more important figure than Ellen DeGeneres, but they were women so they didn't understand. They didn't care much for the latest news on the Israeli naval blockade, either. At least Geraldine took interest in the trapped Chilean miners, though. I thought it was quite fascinating that she had never even heard of the mine disaster before. It must be nice in her head. Very... Local.

Anyway, after world news we watched a program on Nat Geo Wild about cats in the womb. I knew most of the facts already, so I tried to say them all before the narrator could. I was hoping to impress someone with my knowledge, but I don't think I achieved any reaction from anyone aside from annoyance. I did learn something new about purring and roaring, though. Also, cheetahs are fast. Also also, Amanda and Geraldine are still grossed out by birth, even kitty birth. Good luck to their future midwives, I say.

After that I moved to the massage chair and watched a show called Desperately Seeking Sheila. I hope Georgia and that cowboy dude work out. They seemed nice.

After that, Amanda tried to watch Friends but the disc was not working, so she watched House instead. The start of the episode was very interesting, and I wanted to know more, but the moment I left Amanda's place I lost all interest. Here's my guess: it wasn't lupus.

I'll be dropping by Amanda's again on Wednesday to help her move stuff because we didn't actually move anything today. After that we're watching Cloverfield. Yay!

I met one of my neighbours in the lift. She walked in when I was singing Stacy's Mom to myself. We had a pleasant (if slightly brief and awkward) conversation.

I need to do my fake push-ups, and then I'm going to sleep. I will only be asleep for two and something hours. Oh dear.

Airport, Pictures, Hannah and Her Friends, Movies, and Other Things

So I said I would continue blogging, and I was not lying.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to a mall and I read a good book by a cool guy named Rhys Thomas. I know he is cool because I later read that he sent a free copy of the book I was reading to a girl who had posted a cool review of his other book on her blog. That is a thing only cool people do. Anyway, the book was called On The Third Day and it was about an epidemic that removed all the hopes from people and then killed them exactly three days later. They didn't mind because without hopes their lives were meaningless. Even though I only made it through a third of the book before I was interrupted, I very much enjoyed it. Hannah, Ebony, and Yii-Huei (H.E.Y. from now on for the sake of convenience and fun acronyms, but without the periods, because groups of girls are always better when periods aren't involved) had gone to watch Charlie St Cloud. Afterwards they told me it was okay. I told them the book was awesome. I hope this will make them start reading. It probably will not, though.

Hannah was upset with me for something that was actually her fault, but I bought her ice cream to cheer her up because I read somewhere that girls like ice cream. It didn't really work, so I tried initiating some gossip, because I read that girls like that, too. She felt a little better after that.

Well, it wasn't actually gossip. It was the platypus game. I've explained the name before, but I shall explain it again. The name has nothing to do with the game, Hannah just likes the way it sounds because she's a 13-year-old girl and they are allowed to be whimsical and silly like that. Basically the game is truth or dare without the truth. It was... enlightening. We also played it in the car that we took to the mall and in the sauna that we will encounter later on in this story.

Hannah promised we would go to the sauna. The sauna is something I enjoy but something I don't like to do alone. Yii-Huei and Ebony enjoy the sauna. Hannah enjoys doing things with her friends. Everyone wins.

The sauna was hot and there was a lot of steam, which is exactly what you would expect from a sauna but just because something is expected it does not mean it cannot be fun. We left six minutes earlier than we had planned because it got too hot. Next time we will last longer. There may not be a next time, though.

Hannah cried when Stefanie left. Hannah is currently quite upset with me. This paragraph could fit anywhere in this blog post, and there are probably better places for it, but this is the place that it was when I wrote it and I don't feel like moving it.

Today was Sunday. Church was church, but the sermon was more interesting than usual due to a guest speaker. I did not have gum to stay awake, so I looked through pictures on my phone and showed them to Jan and HEY. Jan thought this one was particularly hilarious:

Ebony was reading the fourth Harry Potter book next to me. I've never read any of the Harry Potter books or watched any of the movies, and this usually surprises people. Based what I saw on the pages I read over Ebony's shoulder (She is a slow reader, I had plenty of time to read her pages and look at pictures and also listen to the sermon a bit), I'm going to say that JK Rowling is a pretty good writer. I guess I wouldn't mind a Harry Potter box set for Christmas, but I'd still much rather have a Stephen King collection or The Zombie Survival Guide or anything by Max Barry or even The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

After church, Yii-Huei went home with her family and I dropped Ebony off at her house and then I dropped Hannah off at Grace Assembly for a Royal Rangers 22nd anniversary. She likes a guy there, I think. I hope it isn't David Soh. I think it's another guy she says she hates. I followed her inside. The uniforms don't look that bad, especially when you compare them to the junior uniforms that BB has. Ugh, who thought those shorts were a good idea?

Anyway, as I left I met David's dad. I should have greeted him with "Old man, old man", but I did not. I did not say goodbye in that fashion either. Oh well, we all have regrets that we must live with.

I took a nap when I got home.

I watched Outsourced with Jan and Joel. They were both texting and talking and so everything was less funny than when I watched. People should give more things their undivided attention. That way there would be less collisions on the road, and also people would enjoy things more. It's not like the texts are going anywhere, anyway.

True Love is an objectively good song. Even if you were to ignore who was collaborating on it, it is a nice sounding song that most people would enjoy. Prove me wrong, Hannah.

After watching outsourced I may have taken a nap. I am not sure.

Stuff happened. I can't remember. It probably was not interesting. You know what is interesting, though? This.

Ian, Jan, and Joel were gambling. I strung some of Jan's bets and won around RM10 from Ian. Everyone was happy after the gambling was over, with the exception of Ian, whose gambling debts had recently reached three digits for the umpteenth time. I wouldn't go so far as to say that he probably has a gambling problem, but I will say that gambling probably gives him problems.

Hannah, my mother, and I went downstairs for dinner. Joel was waiting for us there. Do not fear, Joel is not omnipresent; time had passed and he had gone downstairs first. Dinner was tasty and somewhat expensive but that was fine because I paid with my winnings.

When I get my pay cheque I will tithe a tenth, save half (or thereabouts), and spent most of what's leftover on food. Everything else will either go to gambling, Hannah, or movies. This is an arrangement that I am happy with, but some people think it is a bad idea. I think some people are wrong sometimes. Actually, I think most people are wrong most times. That does not mean that I am not most people, but it does not mean that I am, either.

We talked about stuff over dinner. Politics, my grandfathers (They are awesome; did you know that? One sabotaged Nazi operations during the German invasion of the Netherlands a little over half a century ago, and the other killed communist terrorists for a while before moving on to spying on them and figuring out ways to destroy them from the inside), science and religion, my future, Hannah's future, relationships, and other stuff. It was fun. Hannah was on her iPod for half of it. Typical teenager. Typical Hannah, actually.

I need a best friend. I don't have one; I never have had one. Well, maybe I don't need one, but I want one. If she's a girl it's a plus. I would settle for an awkward loser, at least then we would have something in common. I would settle for a dog. I would settle for a cat. I already have a cat. I guess that'll do, then.

I still have to write about clubbing. I will get to that. Look, I'll make a deadline for myself. Something will happen to the clubbing post by Wednesday. Early Thursday morning latest. I'll find something to sincerely compliment my brothers about if I don't update the post. There, it's said. It'll happen now.

I also said I'd write about movies and something else. Jan and I went to see Resident Evil: Afterlife with El-Hanan a few days ago. It is the third movie I've seen more than once in cinemas. Inception was five times, the Dark Knight was two and a half times. Afterlife is undoubtedly the shittiest movie of the three, but it was worth watching for the 3D. Proper 3D is worth the eighteen ringgit. Do not bother with that post-production bullshit, or else I will think less of you as a person. I will do the same if you pay to watch shit like Epic Movie and Vampires Suck and all that other Friedberg and Seltzer bullshit.

That one 3D owl movie looked nice. I might watch it if I have someone to watch it with.

Oh yeah, I also had to write about going with friends to surprise Nicholas at the airport. Basically, after work I spent a whole lot of money going to KLIA to say goodbye to one of my friends' boyfriends. I went because I don't get out much and I would do pretty much anything as long as I knew my friends were there, too, and it didn't involve too much lawbreaking. I was told Amanda wasn't going to be there. "Oh well," I thought, "Joanna is pretty fun and there is much wisdom within the mind of Davinia that I can attempt to obtain. Also, I should probably say a proper goodbye to Nicholas since I was kinda drunk the last time I saw him. Also also, Carmeni is going to be sad afterwards and maybe there is something I can do."

In retrospect, there was nothing I could do except be there, really.

On the way there I stopped at this place along the highway and I got my Touch 'n Go credit moved from my inactive MyKad to a new Touch 'n Go card. I used RM40 of the credit that night alone. The road to KLIA is an expensive one. Parking's pretty bloody pricey, too. I've still got RM50 left or something, so that should last a while. Or so I hope.

I ate Burger King and was just about to take a nap in a booth when the girls found me. We hung out for a bit. Joanna and Carmeni stayed at one spot for a while while Davinia and I went to look at aeroplanes. You guys, aeroplanes are really big. It's awesome. Did you know they fly? They are huge and metal and they fly all over the place. Awesome.

We got back and took pictures. Then we got a call and Nicholas was in the airport. We surprised him. We went to McDonald's. Carmeni sat with her boyfriend and his family. Joanna, Davinia, and I sat at another table nearby. At the airport McDonald's is a bloody rip-off, too. Burger King offers the same menu and the same prices, but McDonald's doesn't care. McDonald's is like the country it represents; it's so large and ubiquitous that it thinks it can do whatever it wants and that it can get away with it. Right now it's right, but the times, they are a-changing.

Sometimes, even I'm aware of how crazy I sound.

After McDonald's, Davinia's phone rang. It was the kind of phone call that you can't discuss in front of a guy, so she went off with Joanna for some girl time and girl talk, whatever that is. Meanwhile, Nicholas' family was taking some final goodbye pictures. I ended up in the group photos but, because they were away, Joanna and Davinia did not. That's not really fair; they know Nicholas better than I do.

A few more pictures were taken, and then Nicholas left and Carmeni started crying. I am terrible at reading emotions because I thought she looked like she was handling the whole thing quite well up until then.

We hung out some more and then the girls went to the toilet and I went home.

Here are the pictures of the night that I took with my phone and one that I did not:



So yeah, that is the story of the time my friends and I showed up at KLIA to make sure that Nicholas Rodriguez could have a little more time with Carmeni before they had to say goodbye for a while.

I'm not sure what to put in this paragraph. I'm not sure what to put in most paragraphs. Usually I just type my thoughts and that turns out quite well. This is a transition paragraph that I feel should be a bit more solemn than usual.

This is also a transition paragraph. This one is about how I just recently learned that "swig" and "swing" are different words. Never again will I say "another swing of wine". Not that I ever said it before, but at least if I ever need the phrase in future I will be saying it right.

This is not a transition paragraph. This is me, blogging. I texted people almost out of nowhere recently. I asked my friends to recommend a best friend for me. Davinia gave me sound advice. Joanna also gave me good advice, but over Windows Live Messenger so that she wouldn't have to use credit or something. Amanda did not reply and I hope that it is because she was busy or out of credit but I guess it might also be because she did not want to. Saundra replied, but I'm not really sure why I sent it to Saundra.

I want a girlfriend. I won't settle for a cat on this one.

There, now I'm done blogging, and it's only twelve. All I have to do is upload all my recent pictures, tweak the HTML, add a few more thoughts, upload, and I'm done.

Oh, I joined Twitter. I wonder why I didn't mention that earlier. I've wanted to join ever since I found out that astronauts have Twitter accounts and they send tweets from space. Until then I had never realized how badly I have wanted to receive electronic communications from space.

Electronic communications... FROM SPACE.

You guys that is so awesome.

Anyway, I'm going to upload the rest of my photographs now. Well, I won't really be uploading them. They're already online, on Facebook. I'll just be attaching them to this post. If Zachary Bower is right and Facebook is just a fad, then when my children read this post there will be nothing here but a bunch of white squares with "x"s in them, assuming my children are reading this with an ancient (by future standards, of course) version of Internet Explorer, which is a silly thing to assume, since Google will probably own the internet by then. What's the Chrome icon for a dead image?

But yeah, pictures. Enjoy:




Okay I think that some explanation is required for some of those pictures. From the top down: Some owls Hannah drew in church last week, a few pictures I took for Hannah in church when she was trying to see what her braid looked like (it did not look nice, as you could see), Hipster Hannah in Cotton On, cats and kittens at Bukit Kiara, Hannah and Yii-Huei and their attempts to hide from the camera, and finally Mercy and her son being cats.

I enjoyed writing this post more than I usually enjoy writing blog posts. I think that may be because it is still so early in the night (it is not even 1am yet).

By the way, did you notice any errors in this post? Yes? Then you should tell me; I can't fix them unless I know where they are.

Oh yeah, Daylight Savings Time is in effect now, which means that work starts an hour earlier and ends an hour earlier, too. I don't mind waking up early, especially for what they're paying me.

I Am Still Blogging, Hannah

I haven't quit blogging, it's just that I haven't been on my computer since I started work on Monday and as such I haven't had much time to update this blog. But I'll get to it eventually. There isn't much to write about this week, my days have mostly gone like this:

1) Wake up
2) Get ready
3) Wake up again from a nap that was taken sometime between items 2 and 3, suddenly realize how late I am
4) Rush to work with my dad or Aunty Rosie or on my own
5) Work for a few hours; don't remember enough about any calls to blog substantial amounts about them
6) Costly lunch
7) Take a break, maybe sneak in some Conquer Club in between calls.
8) Work for a few more hours; maybe get one or two interesting calls
9) Go home
10) Hang out in Hannah's room/Do exactly one interesting thing/take a nap
11) Do exercise and take shower
12) Go to bed relatively early.

Well, on Wednesday night I went to watch a movie and on Thursday I went with friends to surprise Nicholas at the airport before he left, but that's about it. I'll blog more about those later, I guess.

I will definitely be updating the previous post with more information about my first time clubbing. This is a blog-commitment. It is, like, the closest I can get to making a promise without actually making a promise.

Gotta take Hannah and Yii-Huei and Ebony to malls now. Should be fun.

Before I go, here is one picture from Facebook for this post:

Awesome Weekend: Clubbing, Movie, Karaoke

So I haven't blogged in a while because I kept falling asleep before I could do so. It's unfortunate, because I have so much to blog about. Let's start with Friday.

On Friday, I woke up when my dad walked in the room and asked what the music was about. I told him it was my alarm, and then I listened carefully and noticed that it was Should I Stay or Should I Go, which meant that it was already 7:15am, which meant, holy shit, I was super late.

My dad said he'd go down and get the car ready while I got prepared for the day as quickly as possible. I didn't have time to put in my contacts and I was only in the shower long enough to get myself wet and I don't think I used any soap, but that was fine since I had taken a proper shower only a few hours earlier before I went to bed. Also I had that mouthwash I bought at Guardian with Amanda, so that meant minty fresh breath and that was nice.

It was raining like mad while we were driving to work, but I still managed to arrive before eight. I got sat down at the same computer and I was set up and ready to go a lot sooner than on Thursday. I got a call from a lady who was willing to pay for support, but just before I was able to charge her, her problem fixed itself. I hope she gets the customer satisfaction survey, because she was very happy with the service. I was a bit miffed about missing out my RM10 commission, but right now I'm new to the job so happy customers are still worth more to me than commissions and a low AHT. That'll change eventually, I think.

I answered calls until two-ish, then I went for what I had hoped was going to be a quick lunch and a nice nap, but I got approached by someone representing Prudential, so I did a short survey, and then after I bought my pies and lunch a colleague engaged me in conversation so I was in the cafe for a while. The pies and conversation were good, though. The guy I was talking to was an overflow technician or something similar-sounding, which basically meant that although he was with the new Fujitsu department, he'd handle calls from the HP queue if all the other T2 guys were busy. He had actually got one of my customers and helped her fix her problem, which was cool.

Anyway it was a good thing I was talking to him because after lunch I forgot my bag and he reminded me about it. When I got back down I was still on my lunch break, so I went to talk to Kuberan and we talked about our jobs. After that I think I had a talk with my supervisor, then I went on break for fifteen minutes. During that time I traded some movies with Dinesh, who is a very experienced T1 guy who sits nearby and answers my less complicated questions when he's not on call.

After the break I handled some more calls. I had to process my first two DOAs on Friday, which drove up my AHT quite a bit, but now that I know how a DOA case works it should be a lot quicker next time. I also ended up inadvertently frustrating a customer by taking too long to register him and then forgetting to tell him about the support charges until quite some time had passed, so he demanded to speak to my supervisor. Fortunately I was told it might be a hardware issue, which was still under warranty, so I logged the rest of the problem details and he said he would call back later when he was more composed and ready to troubleshoot. I told him that since it was a hardware issue and since he still had a hardware warranty he could get to T2 free of charge. Anyway that is the closest a customer has come to crying and I hope I never screw up that bad again.

I did have a few victories that day, though. An old lady called and she ordered some recovery CDs, which were 66 AUD, so after Dinesh helped walk me through the process of charging a credit card for a purchase, I had earned HP the equivalent of two days of my salary. My AHT was quite high at the end of the day, but since I'm still quite new it's still fine. I should be hitting the six minute target within two weeks, apparently. But yeah, old people are my favourite customers. They don't care about having to pay for support and they're always so friendly and easy to deal with. It's the people with technical knowledge that are harder to deal with, since they usually want to get through T1 as quick as possible and over to T2, so they treat T1 people quite poorly. Oh well, I get paid either way so I can't care too much.

I texted Aunty Rosie to pick me up at five, since that was the exact time I was going to stop taking calls. A few seconds after 4:59, I got a call. It went on for about fifteen minutes. The lady at the other end was pleasant enough, though, so I didn't mind the extra time so much. Aunty Rosie might've, though.

When I got home I set my alarm for nine in the evening and then I took a nap. When I woke up I had a huge bowl of carbonara that I could almost finish (I've still got a few forkfuls of leftovers in the fridge from that dinner), and then I got Hannah to help me figure out what to wear. She picked out a nice shirt that was a bit large and I called it "garish". I wasn't quite sure what "garish" meant, but it sounded right. I looked it up later and that shirt was not at all garish.

Ian dropped me off at Amanda's house at 10:15. Amanda was still getting ready, so her mum let me in. She complimented my Puma shoes, which I thought was pretty funny because I had recently come home to find that my aunt wears the exact same shoes as me but two sizes smaller. We watched the Asian Food Channel while waiting for Davinia to arrive and for Amanda to get ready.

Davinia arrived and she looked nice. She had apparently been getting ready since six. I told her I had only been getting ready since nine. I like being a guy.

Davinia told me to tell Nick that she was going to wait with him while Amanda and I were going to pick up Milan and get some money from an ATM (I only had nine ringgit). I texted Nick the plan and he told me to withdraw loads of cash. Thousands, he specified. Maybe steal a credit card if I didn't have that much in my bank. Nick's a funny guy.

Amanda got done and she looked very nice as well. I told her that I thought her shawl was an especially nice touch, but then she told me that she was only going to wear that in the car and I was all like "oh".

Geraldine was going to leave somewhere with Amanda's mum's friends and then they were going to The Ship in town. I said hi to everyone involved with that previous sentence. There... there isn't much to say about that, but I remembered it so I figured I might as well put that in.

Davinia realized that I had not brought a car and that meant that she had to drive us to pick up Milan and head to the ATM, so Nick would have to wait on his own. So Davinia drove us to the Maybank in Bangsar and Amanda went to 7-Eleven while I withdrew some cash. I met up with Amanda in 7-Eleven while we waited for Davinia to circle around. Amanda had bought credit for Davinia's phone and also some mints for me. In the car I had told her she could get any flavour except purple, which was unfortunate because she had wanted to try purple. Anyway I didn't really have a good reason for not wanting purple, so I let her get it anyway. Turns we both had never tried the purple flavour before, which was why I didn't want it and why she did. So a packet of mints taught us that Amanda likes to try new things and I like familiarity. That was nice, I guess.

After that we picked up Milan from his house nearby and then we went to the Esso where Nick was waiting. Actually, we may have picked Milan up first and then gone on to get the mints and cash and stuff. Whatever. Anyway, we were at the Esso and I noticed that Nick was driving alone and so it was just going to be the five of us. Davi and Milan swapped places so Davi could eat while Milan followed Nicholas to Changkat.

Along the way, Davi lost her spoon so she had to use her hands to eat some food she had brought. When we stopped at a light near Dataran Merdeka, she opened the car door, leaned out, and washed her hands with some mineral water that was lying around. When we stopped at the next traffic light I told everyone about my worst nightmare ever, which I had had just a few hours prior while I was taking my nap. In it, I was at work, but then I screwed up on a call, and then my supervisor came and talked to me. It was terrifying.

When we got to Changkat we drove around for quite a bit looking for parking. The best word to describe the place would be seedy. Seedy with a lot of interesting-looking food places. Well, interesting to the rest of them, it was all oriental nonsense to me. There were a lot of guest houses which made me wonder if it was a really convenient place to stay for tourists or if (and I considered this less likely in my mind because real life is usually more boring than this) they were all fronts for brothels or something.

Anyway we found a place to park and then we walked down to find a club and then loads of interesting fun stuff happened.
Around five hours later Davinia dropped me off at home and I went to bed after doing my exercises (or not, I can't remember) and taking a nice warm shower.

When I woke up I did my exercises (or not, I can't remember) before my shower. I had woken up in the afternoon, too, so that was nice. It was Saturday and I didn't have anything to do, so when my aunt asked if I wanted to watch a movie I said yes. I asked Hannah if she wanted to come, but she was too lazy.

We decided to watch Devil because she screening time was convenient and there wasn't really anything else worth watching. When we got to Mid Valley we picked up the tickets, and then we stopped at one of those stalls that sell all sorts of trinkets so my aunt could get something engraved. While she was doing that, I met Mark Tan. He told me that Ian and Jan were still in a meeting in Cheras but he had left early to get his eyes checked and he was currently looking for something for his girlfriend. I would later be informed by one of my brothers that he was going to marry that girlfriend soon. I am always the last to find out these things. Anyway, after that we went to Popeyes for lunch. It was extremely tasty and I now love it more than KFC due to the delicious chicken fillets (I think they may be called tenders) and the lack of grease. The biscuits are great, too, but my aunt wasn't too fond of them. Oh well, it just meant more for me.

My aunt picked up the engraved thing while I got the popcorn, and then we went to watch the movie. We saw the trailers for Red and The Green Hornet, both of which looked awesome. After that was the movie itself, which was surprisingly good. I guess that may be because even though the story was from M Night Shymalan, he didn't actually write the screenplay or direct the movie. Anyway when it was over we agreed it was quite good. In my opinion it's better than Signs because it makes more sense, even if Signs might have been the more enjoyable movie experience.

We split up for a while after the movie was done. I went to MPH to read the first bit of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at my aunt's recommendation while she went to look for a handbag strap or something. The book was good, but she never found her strap.

When we got back home the house was pretty empty. Aunty Rosie said everyone had just left for dinner, so when I called and found out they were in Sin Kee, I told them to order me a chicken chop and I'd be there soon.

I drove over and we talked and ate dinner and then we went back. Jan wrote his name in the new sidewalk that had just been filled with wet cement, but then Hannah went and tried to write hers next to his and she got spotted by one of the workers who probably smoothed everything out when we left. Nice going, Hannah.

When we got home I went on the computer for a bit, and then I decided to take a nap on the couch for a while before I blogged and did my exercise and took a shower and went to bed. Unfortunately, I did not wake up from this nap until sunrise on Sunday.

Breakfast was okay. The newspaper was a bit more interesting than usual (there were articles about rape and affairs in the NST). Church was slightly better than average.

I watched Mission Impossible until 3:30, then I went to pick Hannah up from Royal Rangers. When I got there, she texted me and told me that I could wait until 4:20 before picking her up. I napped in the meantime.

When Hannah was done we drove home and I finished Mission Impossible and then I forgot what I did. I probably procrastinated writing this blog post, actually.

Oh wait now I remember, I went on the karaoke for about an hour and a half. Susanna and my aunt joined me. Apparently the machine cost RM1.2k. That... that is a lot. We'll have to use it more. It's fun. I only actually went on it because nobody else was at home so I could sing without offending the hearing of others. I love singing but I suck at it, it is my curse.

This post isn't a finished product. After work on Monday I'll come back and fill in all the details about Friday night. I've got a bit of paper with a list of stuff on it that I had written down before I went to bed that night. Here is exactly what's written on it:
"Main points for 1st time clubbing:
-Changkat, envie, nevermind, (it is lousy)
-Car to Palace with Nic, talk about prostitutes & politics
-Palace, too young, lenient bouncer, yay
-No cover charge, yay
-First round on Nic
-Felt socially obliged to purchase second round
-No Heineken, no Tiger
-Is Corola [sic] RM17? Yes. Later, nope, it's RM26. Had to collect RM10 from guys.
-Amanda wants to dance. Nevermind.
-Money seizure stuck in head. Said it, no real result
-Saw some video boobs, weren't that great
-Half songs good, half lame
-Sweet child o' potong steam
-Dance & talk
-Why no jump? Chest spill issue. - Amanda
-Go back before 3:30
-Milan wants to watch fight, is strong
-Drunken goodbyes
-Cheese Naan
-Drive back
-Amanda says I can talk about spillage on blog but nothing else
-Pretty 5.5 for a white guy
-To Devi's
-Explain over & over why Kierran [It's actually Kiran, I think] can't make it.
-Amanda fed by Da
-Amanda sleep
-Nevermind McD's
-Drop off Milan
-Went home
-What else?
-Will figure out later
-T-shirt (Hannah) did good.
-Amanda slurr
-Premarital sex advice from drunks
-Skin colour attraction
-Maybe/Definitely for Da/us"

So yeah, that's like a sneak preview of what's to come. Hopefully I'll have this updated on Monday.

First Day of Actual Work

Thursday (today?) was my first day taking actual calls. It was very interesting. Other stuff happened after work, but I am tired and I have to be awake again in less than five hours so unfortunately not every thing that happened will get the details they deserve. Also this post will probably be loaded with errors.

Okay, so I woke up early. I did my daily Bible reading. I took a nap. There was some alarm trouble but fortunately I set two alarms, so it was inconvenient but not, um, fatal.

I got ready and then I spent a little too much time on the computer. I left the house later than I should have.

I arrived in the office around eight minutes later than I should have (I was supposed to arrive at 7:45, I got there at seven fifty-something). Fortunately, I was already inside the office when Hariz first spotted me and nobody had started working yet so I was in the clear.

I got assigned a temporary desk and computer, and then I tried to set everything up. The computer froze, so I restarted it and went through everything all over again.

I got my first call before I was actually ready for it. Right now I've forgotten what it was about, but I think I should be able to recall in future if you ask me.

After that the calls came in quite steadily. I answered them to the best of my ability and it took me around 15 minutes to work on each. A few wrong numbers meant that my AHT was down to 12 minutes, but it was still way about 6.

I had to check with my supervisor for help quite a few times, but I was told many times during training that calling the supervisor was perfectly okay as long as the customer agreed to be put on hold, and all of them did.

Between twelve to one o'clock my fellow part-timers went home, but I elected to stay on until five for more money and experience. Before my lunch break I got called over to meet with a dude who does call monitoring. He told me that the call he was monitoring of mine had passed, so I was doing okay. However, I had to practice the script, slow down so the customers could understand me, repeat the serial number with the phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, etc), and use less words (I was talking a bit too much). I also met with Hariz and he told me some stuff, but I kinda forgot what right now.

After that I took my break and did my Conquer Club turns and then I answered one more call before I went for lunch. The car was really really hot. I had to wait a few minutes for the car to cool down before I could drive it. I went to McDonald's. I had too many fries, maybe.

After (or before, it's late and my memory's a bit wonky) lunch, a lady dropped by my desk as she was leaving. She had also stopped by earlier when my wrap-up time exceeded six minutes. Anyway, she asked me how things were going and I told her that my biggest mistake so far was sending a customer to T2 without giving him his case ID and the support hours. She said that was not that bad for a first day mistake, but I shouldn't repeat it.

Anyway, I took more calls until five, then I went for a talk with my supervisor. Dave asked how my first day was and I said it was good. He said that that was good because I was doing a pretty good job. I asked him what AHT was expected of me as a new guy, and he told me that 12 minutes was pretty good since his AHT when he was starting was between twenty to thirty minutes. I asked him how long it would take before I could keep my AHT under six minutes, and he said around two weeks. He also told me that hiring the lot of us was no mistake, so that was nice. It's nice to know that I'm not a mistake.

Oh yeah, sometime during work it was someone's birthday so I got cake. It was chocolate indulgence. It was delicious cake.

On my way back, I decided to drive by Amanda's house to see if I could help her pack. I gave her a call and she said she was in Bangsar with Davinia because her parents were away, but I could join them in Devi's in a bit. I told her that sounded like a good plan.

I drove to the cul-de-sac (it may not actually be a cul-de-sac, that's just the first phrase that comes to mind to explain the place) near Saundra's house to do a u-turn so I could go back. I decided to park and see if I could go see Jared and Saundra's new puppy. I gave Saundra a call and she let me in. Kendra, Saundra, and I went to see the puppy. Scratch is adorable. Kendra is nice, too. I don't understand how Hannah can think she's one of the most annoying children ever.

Anyway here is a picture of Scratch.
While playing with Scratch, I got a call from Amanda. I said goodbye to the Lockes and went to Devi's to meet Amanda. She told me where to park.

At Devi's I washed my hands and looked for Amanda. She took a while to find me because I wasn't wearing orange, and I took a while to find her because I was looking in the wrong direction, I guess.

We went to Guardian to buy Amanda some eyeliner (Geraldine had lost her previous supply) and to get Davinia some makeup remover. I bought some mouthwash while I was there. I also saw some eyeliner with ferrocyanide in it. I probably spelt that wrong. I'll Google it tomorrow, it can't be as dangerous as it sounds.

After getting the stuff from Guardian, Amanda and I went to Devi's to meet with Davi. We got a table and we talked about stuff until Geraldine arrived, and then we talked until we ran out of conversation, and then we played a game where you connect animals to other animals or countries based on the first and last letter and it was a lot more fun than it sounds and a lot easier to explain than I've explained. Amanda kept getting "E"s and "A"s, it was fun to watch.

Anyway some of the stuff we talked about in Devi's was how Daryl worked nearby and what was going on with Amanda and the guy she liked and how apparently Juria and her boyfriend had been in that very same Devi's just three hours ago or so. We also gossiped but I won't be sharing much of that here. Also this local celebrity showed up but I didn't recognize him. Also Amanda and Davinia passed judgement on random passers-by. Also Amanda told us about her upcoming Nike photoshoot and how I should do some modelling. I agreed to let Amanda and Davinia take me shopping one day to get me new clothes because I don't really know how to dress fashionably. I dress for comfort and utility first and fashion... last.

We went to Bangsar Village so the girls could use the bathroom. Davinia spent a long while waiting outside with me for Amanda and Geraldine while Amanda and Geraldine were spending a long time in the bathroom waiting for Davinia. It was a bit pointless.

I returned Geraldine's English-Malay dictionary and said goodbye. I'll be seeing them again on Friday evening at 10:30 to go clubbing. I'll be driving Amanda there and staying sober so I can witness the shenanigans and drive her back home safe and sound.

When I got home I told my mum and Hannah how my first day of real work was, and Hannah asked for some of my money. I told her that I'd give her RM5 a day if she exercised with the stairs and fake sit-ups. She agreed. I realized later that this scheme would lose me RM155 a month. Dang.

Hannah actually got me to sign a contract about the exercise and stuff. She's also getting RM20 for burning Cloverfield and Titanic onto a DVD for me for a movie night that may be happening next month or so.

Hannah is a crafty girl.

I need to go to bed now, after showering and stuff I'll maybe only get three hours of sleep or so. I need to nap from when I get back from work until when I have to get ready to go out at around nine forty-five or something.

P.S. Oh yeah, while I was at Devi's, Amanda pointed out that she saw my brothers. I wanted to sneak up on them and surprise them, but they spotted me first. They were going to Pappa (Papa?) Rich with El-Hanan and Joel. After exchanging greetings, I went back to Amanda and Davinia to talk about nonsense.

Fifth Day of Training

So, Wednesday.

I didn't actually fall asleep after writing my last post. After my shower I kinda just climbed into bed and lay there for half an hour until my alarm went off, then I went about getting ready for the day and such.

Aunty Rosie needed the car for something so I couldn't take the car. Instead, I went with Aunty Rosie so she could drive it back and use it for whatever. We left at around seven fifteen. I ordered McDonald's for breakfast since I was early enough to finally have the time to do so. We used the drive through, so I didn't have enough time to perfectly optimize the pricing, but I ended up with an order of RM27 that included three hash browns, three ice milos, one sausage McMuffin for me and one sausage McMuffin with egg for Aunty Rosie, and also some hotcakes and an extra sausage patty. By right Aunty Rosie's portion should have cost RM5, but she paid RM10. I'll fill up her car a little more next time.

I stopped at 1 Tech Park so I could get out and put my stuff down to eat while Aunty Rosie got in the driver's seat and went back home. I managed to construct the following monstrosity from my order:
It's a bun, then a piece of hotcake with syrup, then a hash brown, then a patty, then a hash brown, then a patty, then a hash brown, then another piece of hotcake with more syrup. It was amazing. The syrup was the key.

After breakfast I went to the roof to enjoy the cool morning air and the nice view. I had my phone with me so I had music to enhance the atmosphere.

I arrived in the training room at eight. Hariz told us that he had bad news and good news. He delivered the bad news first: Since Jonathan and I had passed the test, we would be going live on the floor (taking calls, basically) that day. The good news was that the others could retake the test, so they wouldn't have to worry about failing the training or anything. I don't see how us going live on the floor was bad news, though. It was more like two pieces of good news.

Jonathan and I went out to buddy up while the rest of them retook the test. I was with Koshla again, which is good, because she's very professional. There were very few people on the floor so there were a lot of calls waiting and people were more frustrated than last time. There were less wrong numbers, though.

After that we went back in and learnt stuff, and then we had a lunch break. I spent half of it in front of the computer, and then I went upstairs to check out the empty floor. It was only when I arrived that I realized it was full that day because a mobile blood donation unit was there.

I was greeted on my way in by my department's business manager, Edward. He was on his way out. I walked in and filled in some forms, and then a nurse pricked my finger to get some blood to check my blood type. I'm type A. I was sent to the doctor, who asked if there was anything I wanted to ask before the donation started. I asked her if the nurse was correct when she said that it was okay for me to donate even though I had bipolar disorder. The doctor told me that it wasn't okay, because even though my blood was fit for use, bipolar disorder is caused by a chemical imbalance, which can be brought on by a loss of blood, which meant that I could never donate blood ever. This was disappointing, but I guess it was for my own good.

I went back to training and learnt some stuff for a while, and then we had a break. I took a nap. During the break, Jack came in and gave Sean some recruitment forms to fill because the ones we had filled after the interview were with Roy Morgan. Sean passed me mine when I woke up. After training I filled them in and gave them to Jack.

Aunty Rosie drove over with Susanna to pick me up. She told me that we were going to Bangsar Village to buy Susanna a movie because Hannah wouldn't download it for her. I told Aunty Rosie to just save the money because I'd download whatever movie she wanted. We went to pick up my contact lenses instead. When we got to the optometrist, I realized I had no money, so we went back and I got my money from my dad, then I drove over and got the lenses.

When I got home again I didn't do much before I was asleep on the floor again, this time in front of the TV. Nobody woke me up for dinner (again), so I had to reheat everything when I woke up around four hours later at 11pm. I ate my carbonara while watching Deadliest Warrior on Ian's computer. I had known from the list of weapons that the SEALs would win, even though I think the Israeli commandos are more awesome.

So I never ended up answering calls on Wednesday, but today (Thursday), I will. Chances are, in around five and a half hours I'll be on the phone providing people in Australia and New Zealand with the best support options for all their HP Desktop related problems. Yay!

Fourth Day of Training

It's 3:30am, Wednesday morning. I took a nap for too long on the floor. I'll get to now later, right now let's go back to Tuesday.

On Tuesday I woke up a few minutes before six after my alarm went off for the third or fourth time. I had let it snooze a bit because I didn't have to climb the stairs on Tuesday so I figured it would be fine.

I woke up and read my Bible and only fell asleep a little a bit. I was done at 6:15am, so I set my alarm for six forty and took a nap. When the alarm went off I tried to hit snooze and after that I can't remember what happened, but the next time I woke up it was seven thirty. If my mum hadn't woken me up I would have been late as hell.

I quickly took a shower and brushed my teeth and all that, and then I left for work. It was raining like mad, but I still managed to arrive in the training room around ten minutes late, and training hadn't started yet, either.

We were buddying up again, but since there were only two cables, we could only have two trainees buddying up at a time. I decided not to be in the first group and so I went to take a nap while waiting for my turn.

When my turn did come, I got to be buddied with this lady named Koshla (her floor name was Kay) who I would much prefer to Raj if I ever had to call customer service. My time with her started with her answering maybe eight wrong numbers (people calling about laptops or printers or workstations when this was actually the desktop number) before the actual people needing assistance came in. She handled the calls really well.

After the buddying was over, we registered fake customers and fake assets onto the fake customer service database for training. That took a while. We only broke for lunch at one fifteen, which is either forty-five or an hour and fifteen minutes later than usual, so I was really hungry.

I drove to McDonald's for lunch since earlier I had been browsing through the McDonald's websites of various different countries to see what they had that we didn't and vice versa. I am now jealous of the USA's breakfast options and aware that everyone but us has chicken selects. Also I have to enjoy McDonald's breakfasts as much as possible while I'm here, since they don't have 'em in the Netherlands.

After lunch I went back to 1 Tech Park and talked to the guys about religion and pepper spray (Eddie once used a bottle of the stuff to defend himself from four guys on the train who crowded around him and were trying to rob him. They only caught one of them, I think), and then I went up to see if the roof was open. It was. The roof is pretty cool.







After I was done with the roof I went down to to a different room where we were taught about some other stuff, and then we had to take an exam. There were two questions we had to get right to pass, and all but one of us got them wrong. Anyway, the passing mark was 80% and I got 83.33%. Jonathan got 91.67%. Everyone else didn't make the grade.

Hariz told us to be there by eight the next day because we might be talking to Edward, the business manager for HP.

I drove home and I'm not really sure what I did after that. I think I set up for a nap on the floor because I recently downloaded a whole big bunch of podcasts and I found the best way of listening to them was by lying on the floor next to my computer. I brought a couple of pillows and a blanket so it would be more comfortable, then I got called for dinner, which was fried chicken and rice. I just ate the chicken.

I turned on the podcast and lay down to listen to it, but I think I was asleep before the first segment even started. That couldn't've been later than eight, I think. Anyway, the next time I opened my eyes it was midnight. I nodded off a bit more after that and it was three in the morning.

So now it's almost four twenty so I'll have an hour's sleep left, probably less I've still got to do my exercise and take a shower. Man, my sleep schedule must be really messed up now.

Third Day of Training, Lost One of My Jobs

So today I lost a job. Well, I never had it to begin with, but I thought I had it, but I actually don't. I've still got another job, though, so it's not that bad.

I started off today by waking up early and then falling asleep again while reading my Bible which meant that I had to rush to leave the house in time to arrive at work by 8am. It was exactly 8am when I reached the training room.

There was nobody there to train us, so after an hour we were told that we could go for breakfast while our trainer arrived from Rawang. I went to McDonald's. It was pretty dang tasty.

When I got back there was still no trainer, and then we were told that our trainer's car broke down so we could go for lunch while they found someone else to train us. I used the lunch break to listen to music while napping.

Finally we got a trainer. I forgot what his name was, I think it starts with a P. Anyway, he was quite good. Hariz was better, but then again this guy's speciality wasn't training so he did quite well considering. He taught us how to register a customer and an asset. That took about two hours, and then he went home at four.

We sat around for another half hour before I went out to ask what we were waiting for. We were told we could go.

Sharmila (Shamini? The recruitment lady I met the first time I ever went to Datacom, with my dad) told me that Roy Morgan had a problem and they couldn't take me on. I asked why Jack had offered me dual jobs in the first place if this was the case, and she told me he wasn't aware and it was actually their department's problem. I went up to check with the Roy Morgan department and Kelly told me that the government had a new rule in place whereby if a part-timer worked a certain amount of hours, the company would have to pay for their insurance and pension or something involving acronyms. This was only coming in to effect in October, and Jack wasn't aware of it when he offered me the HP job when I was applying for Roy Morgan. Anyway, all this meant was that it wasn't anybody's fault, really, but as long as I worked in HP I couldn't work in Roy Morgan because then I'd clock too many hours and they'd have to go through the hassle of figuring which department would pay for everything and that wasn't something they wanted to do. So I guess I've got a lot more free time but a lot less money. Oh well.

In the lobby I talked to Sean, Ganesh, and Eddie about what was going on with HP and why I couldn't work both accounts and such. I'd mention what I said but I'm not sure if it's supposed to be confidential or whatever so I'll just play it safe and say nothing. Anyway at the end of today's training I think we only earned two hour's worth of salary since that's how long we were trained, which meant that we wasted six hours. Oh well, at least we had internet access.

After work I drove to the optometrist to order new contact lenses. She gave me a check up and went over my history. I've been wearing the same pair of glasses for three years now. Apparently it's bad for my eyes since my right eye astigmatism is increasing, but my dad probably won't pay for new glasses unless mine break, and I have never broken a pair of glasses. It's always been someone else's fault. But yeah, the optometrist gave me a good deal for contact lenses: six months' supply plus two free left eye lenses to pair with the two right eye ones that I have left over. While I was there I helped her mum view a slideshow of wedding pictures. There wasn't really a problem, it was just that Windows 7 streamlining made it difficult to figure out what to do next.

Back at home I told my dad about what was going on with the contact lenses and how I had gotten six months' worth of lenses plus a check-up plus two additional left eye lenses for only RM20 more than the other store was offering. He doesn't like the way the optometrist does business or something so I felt the need to justify everything to him. I like her, though, she's familiar and friendly. Of course she'll try to convince us to take the more expensive option, but then again she is running a business and that is why we have discretion and the right to go elsewhere. Anyway I'm rambling.

I ate a large-ish dinner that was quite okay and then I watched TV and and then I took a nap. I will be very surprised if anyone other than me reads this whole post by the time it's done. I doubt even I will ever read it again. But yeah, I did some boring stuff and then I wrote this and after this I'm going to do my exercise and take a shower and then I'll try my luck at sleeping in bed and if I'm still having trouble sleeping (I had trouble sleeping last night, by the way. Ended up falling asleep a little after 3am to a BBC news update), I'll just turn on the news; the news never fails to put me to sleep.

Okay then goodnight. To anyone reading this, try to kiss someone soon. I hear that's pretty fun.

Nobody Ever Thinks About Me

The title is hyperbole. Still, I'm hardly feeling extremely happy right now.

So today I had my "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" alarm set for 7:42am, and then I had "I Feel Fantastic" set for 7:50am. This way I could be roused out of a deeper sleep by my first alarm, then (because it is a relatively gentle song), I could sleep through it until my second alarm went off so I could get ready for the day.

Just my luck, then, that my dad woke us all up at 7:40am by turning off the air conditioning and fan and opening the curtains. Ian got out of bed first, which meant that instead of plenty of time to get ready by virtue of being the first one up, I would have to wait for Ian and Jan to get ready first and then rush to get ready before 8:30am. If only my dad would have waited ten more bloody minutes, then my morning would have been perfect.

Anyway, I got up and read my Bible while waiting for everyone to get done. Jan took his own sweet time, but I still managed to be ready to go right before 8:30am because I didn't have any contact lenses to put in.

Ian and my dad went in one car to breakfast while the rest of us (and Ebony) went in my mum's. Someone else had ordered the food while I went to buy a copy of the NST and some gum to stay awake in church, so I didn't get any extra hash browns and the order hadn't really been optimized. Oh well, at least my McMuffin was free of cheese and also very fresh and delicious.

After McDonald's, everyone except Susanna, Jan, and my mum went back with my dad because my mum was taking a longer route so she could pick up Aunty Catherine. Along the way I talked about why I was so upset about yesterday, but then my dad interjected and talked for fifteen minutes about mass communication or something, and then I finally got tired of listening and asked if I could have my say so I could finish what I was saying, then Ian got upset and swore at me in front of Ebony and Hannah and my dad. I was being quite an obnoxious shit, though, so you can't blame him entirely for it. I think a 85/15 split (majority Ian) is reasonable.

Anyway, church was quite empty due to the holidays or something. I got to be in charge of the projections. I did the word jumble during my down time. I would have continued with the jumble, but my mum was giving the sermon so I went outside to show I was listening. I found that our church has new Bibles, the second version of the NLT. After the sermon I asked my mum to get me one for Christmas since it's got an infobox before each book and also because it's quite a bit easier to read. Oh yeah, I also need to tithe double next week because the ushers were going out for collection instead of having us come to them, but they didn't come to me in the projectionist room so I couldn't give my RM5. I tried signalling them but they are children so they didn't notice.

While at church I had decided I was going to sleep really early, so I scheduled in my phone to blog at six and exercise and shower at seven so I could be in bed by eight so I could still have plenty of rest before I woke up at five to get ready for work. I'd also hopefully have time for another McDonald's breakfast.

After church we went to visit my grandparents who were over at my aunt's place. Ian and I went with my dad first and the rest of the family was to show up later. There wasn't anyone there at first except for Cinta, so I played with her for a bit until Uncle Simon showed up. He told me to be careful with Cinta because she had hurt her paw, so I stopped playing so rough with her. A little later Dexter showed up and Ian and I told him about our jobs. Then my aunt Mina came out and then she left with her husband to go somewhere for a while and Dexter went to say bye.

Soon my grandpa came out and my dad told us to ask him about his war stories, so we did. My granddad has a lot of good stories, but he doesn't really tell them often. When the History Channel did a documentary on the Malayan Emergency, they interviewed a bunch of my granddad's friends for the documentary, but he declined to be interviewed because he didn't want to travel all the way to KL, and I guess he's modest or something. All that aside, he's also still bound by the official secrets act, but if the government wants to go after him for such a trivial offence after all he's done for this country then Malaysia is a much shittier place than I thought.

Anyway, an example of one such story that he never tells is when he was in a squad of four people and this British guy was supposed to cover his back. However, the Brit failed to notice a communist sniper in a tree, and so the sniper took a shot at my grandfather. Fortunately for the two most recent generations of my family, the gun misfired. It wasn't very fortunate for the sniper, though, since my grandfather turned around and shot him after that. The British guy would have gotten in deep shit with his superiors if it had gotten out that my he failed to watch my grandfather's back, so he bribed my grandpa not to tell anyone, and he didn't. He didn't even tell us, we had to hear it from my dad.

Anyway we talked to my grandfather and we talked among each other as well. I heard about how my grandfather had interrogated Dexter's girlfriend last night and how my other cousin lives in fear of my granddad meeting his girlfriends. Daryl came out and talked for a while before he went to his open house. Wicket (or Wicked. I'm not really sure which and he responds to both, so it doesn't matter) came out, too, so I played with him for a bit.

Here are doggie pictures:







I got a miscall from a withheld number, which worried me because it might have been about work. I called Sean but he hadn't heard anything. My dad called the house and he found that they were leaving soon. I called the house to ask Hannah to bring my swimming trunks and my sandals. Things winded down after that and they were supposed to arrive in twenty minutes or so, so I took a nap on a chair outside while waiting. My dad woke me up to tell me to go inside to nap, so I did.

When I woke up again, it was five o'clock and Ian and my dad had already gone home. My mum was rushing me to get in the car and I didn't even get to say goodbye to the dogs. I was upset because nobody woke me up to even check if I wanted to swim. It seemed so stupid that they would just assume that when my swimming trunks finally arrived I would just want to continue napping. I got very upset. Hannah apparently had wanted to wake me up to tell me they were there, but she didn't; instead she got changed and jumped in the pool and asked for someone to wake me up but nobody heard her and she didn't follow up. Also apparently Wicket jumped in the pool and swam with them for a while, so I missed that too.

So the drive home was hardly pleasant. I got on the computer and started blogging at around 6:30 (you'll know exactly when, just check the timestamp on this. That's the time at the start of composition, not the time of posting.) so I was already behind schedule, and then there was a hassle about whether Ian or I would go out to buy dinner and where we'd buy it from and what we'd buy and stuff that ended with me very upset and my parents talked to me for a while and then I took a break for twenty minutes to calm down and then I talked to my dad and now we're done and it's almost 8:10 and I'm barely done with this blog post, so I'm an hour behind. I think I'll probably end up in bed at around ten or something. Bleh.

Oh well, at least I get nuggets for dinner. I hope they remembered the barbecue sauce.

Oh yeah, Milan (and the rest of you guys, but Milan is who ctrl+Fs), I told all last night's secrets to Hannah; I hope that's okay. I don't think there's an overlap between people my sister knows and people that you know. Her friend Ebony was also in the room but Ebony is very quiet and there is even less overlap, so you should be fine. Also I got no Facebook messages or wall-to-wall stuff from you so I'm assuming that last night's post checked out in terms of not revealing any secrets.