More Celebrations!

It’s almost 11pm and usually I would be in bed fast asleep, but I just came home from our 7 year anniversary celebration dinner with a few of my close girlfriends - I am on such a high! It was a fantastic night! We had dinner at Thai Pothong in Newtown and I highly recommend it; the atmosphere is great, the staff are excellent and the food is really good!

A Big Thank you from Jacky and I to everyone that came and a massive thanks to Betty, Katina, Lisa, Sarah and Belinda for the amazing cake! You truly out did yourselves, I didn't expect it at all! (Loved the card Betty! Very clever indeed)

The girls bought us this cake with a picture of us, how they got the photo I am not too sure...when the waitress brought it out they started singing Happy anniversary to the tune of Happy Birthday - It was quite a funny moment. The whole thing was so over the top, a bit embrassing but oh-so-fun.

(Click Photos to enlarge)

Our anniversary is actually tomorrow, but hey any excuse to celebrate!

Celebrations

This is our anniversary weekend; Jacky told me earlier in the week that he had a surprise for me Saturday morning. So I asked the all important question of whether I could wear heels to which he replied ‘no’. The surprise ended up being a very romantic 1 horse ride around Centennial Park – the morning air was cold but refreshing, it was a perfect surprise. I use to ride when I was younger; it was almost like reliving parts of my childhood again.

My Horse was called Dax and Jacky's one was called Blaze

Later that night we joined a large group of friends at The Athenian Restaurant in the City to celebrate Jon's 24th Birthday(Happy Birthday Jon! you sexy beast you). The waitress was a bit pushy but she gave us a good laugh, it was a great night overall. There was a lot of familiar faces...everyone knows some one in some way.

Our table, I didn't manage to get a pic of the other table (sorry)

Wendy Fan! Wendy Fan!....and the Lovely Vivien...

LEFT: Jon, Cordia and Reeve a glimpse of the future? *grins* RIGHT: Jon, Matty, Viv and Tim

For My Girls...

Just Received this email from the Hudson Culture Club: Bare By Rebecca Davies is coming to Hudson

"The Culture Club is pleased to announce that Bare, a leading Australian Women's Designer is going to be holding a sale in our boardrooms for staff offering their current and future stock at a 35% discount next Thursday 16th June between 6-8pm

There will be approximately 150 garments in sizes, XS, Small, Medium and Large. Credit Card details will be taken on the night and the purchases will be delivered back to the boardrooms to be picked up on Friday afternoon. Details of pick-up time will be sent out shortly.

Bare by Rebecca Davies has been established and trading for over 10 years. Rebecca Davies is a high end fashion designer and is extremely reputable all over Australia and the World for the gorgeous silks, colours beads and sequins she uses. Celebrities all over Australia and the World wear her dresses regularly and Rebecca appears on TV regularly also.

Bare has have 4 stores in Sydney, Paddington, Double Bay, City (Strand Arcade) and Chatswood and David Jones also stock some of their collection. International stockists include Harvey Nichols Hong Kong, Selfridges London and Bloomingdales New York.

Collection consists mainly dresses, beautiful kaftans, pants, coats, furs, jackets, skirts and tops. Bare has appeared in the Mercedes Australian Fashion week 4 times and are extremely successful in securing new stockists at this event every year.

Bare are offering the opportunity of viewing their current and up coming collections from our boardrooms at a discount of 35% off the retail price. The normal price range is $200-$400 per garment."

I'm not sure if I can sneak people in or not, but if there are any pieces that you guys want email me with the style number and size and I'll see if I can get it for you.

www.ebare.com.au

=P

After 1.5 years of being in this job and placing numerous candidates in various roles I finally received my first thank you card.

“Dear Miss Emily,

I can’t express how grateful I’m.
Thanks for your genuine care and great help and efficiency.
You make my prefect full stop to my job-hunting journey.

Lots of Thanks,
J.”

That's what they wrote word for word....maybe next time I'll be some one's great exclamation mark!

Over and Out

Today was an interesting day; it ended on quite a high with 3 placements in the team and for the first time in a long time morale was high. On a sad note it was also Nicola’s last day, it’s not good bye because I know that like Luke we’ll stay in touch. I also know that when I look at her empty desk on Tuesday it’s not going to be easy.

Its funny how things turn out, who would have thought that we'd become such good friends. When she first came I was really intimidated by her, she was beautiful, strong minded and she wasn’t afraid to say exactly what she thought. I guess under normal circumstances we probably wouldn’t have crossed paths but there we both were a girl from the North and a girl from the South both at Hudson Parramatta.

Nic, thank you for your friendship, your advice, your honesty, for always sticking up for me. I'll miss our catch ups walking to and from the car park all those mornings and afternoons. The office won’t be the same without you and the city won’t know what’s about to hit them. There is no doubt that you will be a great success in your new role.

Long live The Hoff!

Much Love

Em
xxoox

Wendy Fan! Wendy Fan!

Last night just over 10 of us gathered at Bar333 to celebrate Wendy’s 23rd birthday. It was so nice to catch up with a few old friends, there’s nothing quite like the familiar faces and lame jokes - still funny 9 years later. It was kind of sad to see that a few of us were absent, but time, different Uni’s and work made it a bit hard to stay in touch.

For those who don’t already know her let me introduce you to my friend Wendy. Wendy and I have been friends since high school, from year 9 we were pretty much joined at the hip. We laughed together, shopped together, waited for the bus together, hung out on weekends and gossiped on the phone for hours on end. Looking back we even sported the same short hair cut – as friends do.

What I really liked most about being around Wendy was that she made high school fun! I was always the more cautious one, even a little bit serious at times, but her ditzy ness, humour and ability to know every single Asian person in Hurstville always managed to put a smile on my face. I really believe that Wendy played a bit part in shaping the person that I am today.

Time passed, we went to different Uni’s, studied different courses and worked at different places. We caught up here and there but not as much as we wanted to. Its funny how you blink and years pass without you even realising; when you do, you wonder what hit you.

We’re both a bit older and wiser (I hope) but deep down we’re still the same two girls who hung out at Hurstville library, ate chicken laksas at Dixon’s and wrote each others permission note to go shopping at Westfields.

Wendy Fan here is to a long friendship and all the good times. Happy Birthday!

Wendy, Me, Phyllis, Lisa

Nigel and Wendy...awww

Westie, the photo below is for you, you wouldn't believe who we ran into. I had to get Allan to pretend to take a photo of Jacky so it wouldn't look obvious that we were taking a pic of him. Click on the photo to enlarge and see if you recognise who it is.

A Must See

The Lion King was Excellent! I know that a lot of people told me that it would be good, but I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. The colours, costumes and special lighting effects were just spectacular. We had really good seats and sitting right in the middle in the second row allowed us to see a lot of the detail in the costumes and facial expressions.

I’m so glad that I went, only now do I realise what I would have missed out on if I didn't go, so when I came home today I quickly booked some tickets for mum and my uncle to see the show. I’m so excited I can’t wait till she sees it!

So if you haven’t gone already what you waiting for??!?! Go to Ticketmaster7 right now! (the show closes this month)

Guy Sebastian

Saw Guy's concert tonight, it was a fantastic show!

See this hand?!? Guy shook my hand - I didn't wash it for 3 whole hours! =P

And here are some photos from the show below, the show started at 8:30 and went till 11:00 with Paulini singing 40 mins worth of songs and a 30 minute break in between. At $42 a ticket it was a great show! click the pictures to enlarge

Milestones

I’ve been pretty unwell for the last week battling a bad sinus and throat infection the whole office was getting sick and it was only a matter of time before my immune system gave way. As nasty as it all sounds it was actually a big blessing in disguise. I’ve been working my bum off lately where 10-hour days quickly turned into 12 hours plus, the pressure place by managers was enormous. Once again I had fallen into a rut without realising the impact it was having on me mentally and physically, poor Jacky would have to bear the brunt of my exhaustion and mood swings.

I was sent home sick on Friday and took yesterday off. Whilst I am still unwell, all the sleeping and rest has left me rejuvenated and it actually feels good to be back at work (did I really say that?). The world didn't end without me and my team followed up on what needed to be done (this was probably due to me bombarding them with emails from home with what each person had to do – I didn't realise that I had such controlling tendencies and remote access to your work email is a curse!).

Work aside we had a lovely dinner on Saturday night celebrating Mr & Mrs Westwood’s 25th wedding anniversary!! We bought them a silver Country Rd frame with a photo of their wedding day inside in black and white.

Seeing them reach such a milestone is really special, with all the talk of divorce these days it’s so nice to see a couple together and in love after 3 kids, 2 dogs, 3 fish, 25 years of marriage and 35 years of being together.

On a personal level I’ve been very excited, Jacky and I are about to reach our own milestone in 20 days – our anniversary of 7 years!! That’s 2557 days! I met Jacky when I was 16 (1998) started going out with him just before I turned 17 and haven’t looked back ever since. There’s something about that number 7 that makes you really stop and think…wow we made it.

Tonight we’re going to watch the Guy Sebastion concert; tomorrow we’re off to see the Lion King (second row seats). I can’t wait!
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My comments thing has been broken for a while now, I don’t know if it’s going to come back. If it doesn’t I might chuck a blogger one on.

For the Ladies

O_o

It's after 7 and i'm still at work, I've been here since 7:30am.

Big thanks to Vince and Alex for dropping by, it was great catching up! thanks for the Boost juice.

An 8 year crush..

Happy Birthday Lee Hom!!

Love Your Biggest Fan

xxox

Things that shocked me this week

• An article that makes you go wtf??

• When a new client called me up to find him a bookkeeper but told me straight out “I don’t like muslims”.

• When the same client started telling me about how the suburb where they work is dangerous because a lot of women have been raped in the area. How the last girl he had working for him got raped but that she probably provoked it because she wore really short skirts.
  
  I refuse to work with this client.

• For those of you that read the article and went wtf?!?! Go here.

Man Gifts

I recently read in Cleo somewhere that from their research they found that up to 90% of guys secretly liked receiving flowers but would not openly admit to it. It was a bit of a surprise to me but seeing that this was published in Cleo it must be true! So there I was hatching a plan to buy Jacky the biggest and most colourful bunch of gerberas ever, when coincidently Kyle and Jackie O had a discussion about bad man gifts.

Jackie O’s husband Lee recently came back from overseas and she greeted him with a big bunch of flowers at the airport. Lee didn't even try to hide the fact that he thought it was a pretty lousy present, which came as a massive surprise to Jackie. So sparked the whole debate of ‘crappy male presents’.
In a quick survey around the office it would seem that flowers for a guy is a no no and my colleague compared it to buying a Mad Max dvd for his girlfriend. So does Cleo have their facts wrong?

I'm Sorry...

I must be the worst person to work for, I’ve been so busy that I forgot it was secretaries day and didn't get my Assistant anything!

I’ve bought her a bunch of flowers since…but it’s not the same when she hears someone having to remind me.

Jin

Betty & Lisa look what I found - a pic taken when you met with Jin (thanks Joel)

Good old Parramatta

Melbourne was lovely.

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Today I had my first run in with the Crazy lady that sits near the Roxy. You are generally ok if you avoid eye contact and walk past quickly. Today I made the dreaded mistake of pausing in front of her when I thought that I stepped in something that looked like pee. I glanced at her then at the yellow stream of liquid. As I hurried off I could hear yelling “Youuuuuuuuuu stupiddddddd sluttttttt!”

Well at least she didn't chase me up the stairs.

Bye

Off to Melbourne tomorrow. See you when I get back.

A Good Read

If anyone is looking for a good read visit this blog

http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=i_am_getting_married

It's hilarious and kept me entertained for ages (thanks Viv for the recommendation).

Mr Whenman

I’m very grateful for my friend Luke, he brings me so much calm when I feel like I am caught in such a heavy storm with no one to turn to. For someone so young he has wisdom beyond his years. Thank you so much for your email, thank you so much for your friendship.

Nic and I are really missing your company.

Birthday Wishes

A lot of Birthdays this weekend.

A Big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to:

Roula
Deana (Sorry for missing the Lunch!)
Mey
Joel
Simba

Saturday Night Drinks - The Golden Sheaf @ Double Bay to watch Brown Sugar play.

*Roula I didn't get pics of all the other people so I'll have to grab them off you.

*Betty & Lisa how much are you going to pay me for the pic with Rob?

* Yay! I'm off to Melbourne in 3 Days!!

*Matty did you like Viv's suprise?

End Of Quarter Celebrations

Something horrible happened at work yesterday; it drained everything out of me and left me in tears. When I woke up this morning I was still feeling pretty lousy and I turned on the computer to vent. I’m really glad that I didn't press publish …I would have regretted it.

The funny thing is, my assistant decided to Google my name at work today and found my blog. I guess I have to be more careful incase one day someone who I don't want to see my site finds it. (Don't worry Em you're welcome to visit anytime, you know I couldn't live without you!) *waves* and says a big Hi to Emma.

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Last quarter our team blew the budget and did really well, there were whispers of go-carting, lawn bowls, laser skirmish and mini golf as rewards. In the end we all headed off for lunch at Grappa Ristorante E Bar with work providing plenty of alcohol for a boozy afternoon.

Guys, this restaurant is FANTASTIC! If you are ever in Leichhardt go try it out. The prices aren’t cheap, but the service, food and setting is well worth it!

Our Team - minus Nicola, Natalie & John who were down with the flu.

Everyone got presents...

the card reads 'Thank you for all your hard work and efforts in Quarter 1'

I recommend the fish...

There were also prizes given out for bloopers and funny moments that occurred during this quarter. I won 2 prizes for the 2 scenarios below.

Scenario 1

I often have talks with my manager about creating strategies to reach my clients on a more personal level. After one particular visit I made a note on the database to ask my client about her cat the next time I spoke to her. After some general chit chat the conversation went something like this:

Me: “So Marge* how is that cat of yours?”

Client: “Oh it died.”

Me: *freezes and doesn’t know what to say next*
“Oh…it’s for the best”

Client: *Silence*

Me: *Silence*

Oh it’s for the best!??!! What a dumb thing to say…….!!

Scenario 2

Imagine my client, the General Manager of a large multinational organisation. In person he is very conservative and very serious. After a long conversation I had meant to say “lovely touching base with you Robert” but instead I said “lovely touching you Robert”.

Me: *Silence*

Client: *More Silence*

So I won a toy kitten which is self explanatory, the rubber gloves was in case I wanted to go ‘touch’ any more clients.

* Names have been changed.

Happy Birthday Rodna!

I’m at Baku now and I’ve been walking around like a zombie. Had a really big night last night, went on a Wild Boys Afloat cruise for Rodna’s 24th. Happy Birthday Rodna!! Despite my initial reservations it turned out to be a great night with plenty of laughs. Yes I really did go...you can all stop grinning now!

So 21 of us all got dressed up ready to have a bit of fun (Sorry for the picture quality I was too lazy to scan it).

The 'buffet' reminded me of the food that you get served at camp and we drank wine out of plastic cups.....classy!

The guy on the left was Keanu's body double in the Matrix...and the guy on the right was errr...showing us how athletic he was =P ehhehe

There were 5 performances and the last 'performer' looked really scary and randomly picked girls from the audience, he came up near us and I quickly put my head down to avoid eye contact secretly praying that he wouldn't pick me.

Poor Sophie got picked ....I won't put the picture up...

Here is to a great night and many cheesy jokes!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In something totally unrelated, I was watching the Charles and Camilla wedding as I was getting ready for work. Is Charles and Camilla proof of the age old saying “If you’re meant to be together you will be…”?

It's the Weekend

Today...no, This week was a tough one. I'm glad it's over.

A big sorry to Hoi who probably emailed me at a bad time and had to bear the brunt of my frustrations brought on by Candidates who SCREW ME AROUND AND WASTE MY FREAKING TIME!!!

I'm fine now and I'll live to fight another day.

Powerful stuff...

Found the site below via Ken's Blog...it's a must visit.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Came into work this morning to be greeted by this email and just wanted to share it with everyone (with Christina's permission of course).

From: Christina Ioannou

Sent: Thursday, 31 March 2005 1:07

Subject: Hello Girlies

Just wanted to say a quick hello and let you know I got back safely, sorry for not having my phone on!!

Hope you are all well and your fantastic selves!!

Had a beautiful time!!! On the Tuesday last week, arrived at Whitsunday Coast and spent the day looking around the coast, which is populated with sugar cane plantations. You can't swim in the water at Airlie beach because it is full of sting rays, but they have a lagoon for the local residents. I was very worried at this point because I thought we were going to spend 8 days here, and I wanted to swim in the unswimable water!

Anyhow, I eventually found out that we were headed for somewhere else on the Wednesday.... we boarded the ferry in the afternoon and only half an hour later arrived at the beautiful Hamilton Island resort! We stayed in a cute little palm bungalow!

You will all be very proud of me.... I participated in activities including kayaking (okay for half an hour, before I had a heart attack in fear of the deep blue sea), I also sunbaked alot and managed not to get burnt thanks to my trusty 30+ Le Tan sunscreen- which makes you brown without the red sting! (my new discovery!!). Stephen was a very good boy he kayaked everyday!

We visited, the Great Barrier Reef yesterday, a two hour ferry trip away on rough waters. Let me say, that it is beautiful!!!!! The reef is a strip of coral (actually multiple strips of coral) located in the middle of the pacific ocean. They have built a floating plank there called reefworld, which is where you disembark from the ferry and can either use the plank to sunbake or to snorkel/scuba dive in the water. We went in a semi-submersible submarine and had a look at the reef- it was amazing! Stephen was so cute, he got so carried away snorkelling and looking at the beautiful blue angel fish, that he went floating off course.... eventually the speed boat came to get him!

And the highlight of my trip, would have to be on March 26 (the Saturday, which is was our 3 year anniversary day!). We got up and Stephen had hired a helicopter for us, it took us to Whitehaven beach, which has the whitest and softest sand in the world, it was amazing. We set up our sunshade tent, and lay there just the two of us (as it is an unoccupied island). Stephen then gave me our anniversary present which was a book which he had made - he had painted pictures using watercolour paints of all the things we had done together and things he would like for us in the future- it was so special that I started crying.

And before I knew it he took out a beautiful ring and proposed to me! I said YES! So there you go ladies, I am finally engaged! I found out later that he had asked mum and dad for permission like 3 weeks ago or something!!!! SO they all knew but me!!! Everyone is happy, and apparently the whole of Cyprus/Syria/Adelaide know!!

Love you lots!!

C.

I shall post a picture of the happy couple once I am home. All the girls let me hear you say 'awww....'

For She's a Jolly Good Fellow..

Wishing Mrs Westwood a very Happy 50th Birthday!

You've known me since I was 5, thank you for being a 2nd Mum to me.

Lots of Love xoxx

Em

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Also Big Happy Birthday to Nat! Hope that you had a fantastic night, can't wait to see the rest of the pics.

Drinks @ The Loft 24/03/05

Team Building with a Pinch of Salt

We headed out to our city office for an afternoon of team building. Our task:

• Partner up and learn as much as you can about the other person
• Spend the next 20 minutes painting a picture that tells a story about your partner.
• Give a speech to explain what you have painted and why.
• Allow our paintings and speeches to be judged by a team of staff in HR.

This is the painting that my partner John painted about me.

This my painting about John - I won best painting!

This was understandable - see below

Later that afternoon we caught the ferry to Manly to have a round of drinks at the Manly Wharf Hotel, where we spotted the very handsome ‘Tom’ from the show The Great Outdoors and more recently Dancing with the Stars. When it was established that no one would have the guts to ask him for a photo we headed across the road to dine at the restaurant Pink Salt as featured in channel 7’s My Restaurant Rules.

Having cameras film you whilst you sit, drink and eat is an interesting experience but not one where you are left feeling uncomfortable. As we get settled in, there is a little lack of atmosphere which is usually created by surrounding music. But as Evan explained, they are not able to play music due to the constant filming by the camera crew.

For the entrée we began with the Pink Salt Sample Platter where you had the opportunity to try a little bit of all the entrées listed plus more. The platter is good if you are brave enough to try new things and have a liking for seafood. The Zucchini flower and corn fritters with tomato & fennel ragout was by far the best entrée dish – be sure to eat it while it’s hot!

For the main meal I ordered the Wagyu beef rump with roasted eschalots, baby spinach & béarnaise which was fabulous! I would go as far as to say that this would be their best main dish. The salmon was also very nice and I would recommend it over the swordfish. The corn fed chicken is very well presented but tasted rather ordinary and my colleagues felt that the risotto tasted quite bland.

The service is exceptional and is probably due to the fact that their every move is being filmed. Evan and Bella are very friendly and make every effort to mingle with customers. Bella is indeed very beautiful and even more so in person, to our delight they posed for a few happy snaps.

The mocktails were quite nice I had the Mango Suite (i.e. Fresh mango and passionfruit shaken with peach syrup and ice cream) which I found to be rather sweet. After having a sip of everyone else’s mocktail we all came to the consensus that the Apply Mojito (i.e. Fresh green apple, mint, lime, palm sugar shaken with apple juice and topped with soda) was by far the best.

The overall price of the dishes is rather expensive for what it is, the side dishes such as chips or mash pumpkin is ordered separately with an extra $7 charged per side, this is on top of the $33 for the mains. Our bill for 14 people was just under $1000 (not including alcohol as it was B.Y.O) thank goodness our company footed part of the bill.

Overall the night was good, so support Pink Salt by dining or voting for them!

Engrish

*edit - 16/01/2007* I took my last name off this post because my name kept coming up in google searches which then linked to my blog. I'm still trying to keep a level of anonymity =P

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Today was one of those days… it was already 5:55pm and I was ready to call it a day. As I was about to log off a candidate with a heavy Asian accent calls through in relation to this job.

The conversation went something like this:

Mai Ling: “Hello? Can I please speak to Emily Cong? It’s Mai Ling calling.”

Me: “Hello Mai Ling, it’s Emily speaking how can I help you there?”

Mai Ling: “I calling for role, I called before. Emily Cong where is he??”

Me: “It’s actually Emily Ch**g and yes, I did get your message but I was in a meeting and didn't have the chance to return calls yet”

Mai Ling: “Emily Ch**g?!? Where is he?? When does he come out of meeting?!?!”

Me: “ No no, I’m Emily Ch**g you’re speaking to her”

Mai Ling: “But I need to speak to Emily Ch**g!! Is he out of meeting yet?!?!”

Me: “Emily Ch**g is a ladies name and you are speaking to her…”

Mai Ling: “EMILY CH**G!! Oh Emily is a WOMAN!?!?....hi Emily, I’m applying for your job...”

The conversation was very painful and went from bad to worse, needless to say that the candidate wasn’t successful.

*For the record I have not used original names to protect the candidates identities.

Warning!

To those Currently working at Macquarie Bank Beware, my friend Betty joins tomorrow! What she lacks in height she makes up for in volume and personality. Her voice was once described by our english teacher as 'penetrating'.

Macquarie Bank...you won't know what hit ya!

Busy Weekend

I had intended on writing a long post about the weekend but I'm too tired...so here are some pics for now.

Dinner @ Dolcissimo Haberfield - Sunday Night

After all the talk of going to Dolcissimo to try their chocolate pizza we finally went...chocolate pizza is very rich and I recommend the mini as opposed to the larger size.

Larissa's B'day @ Piar Crows Nest - Saturday Night

Really good night! Made some new friends and caught up with the old. The food was really different, I could bearly walk by the end of the night

Drinks @ Mint Bar Friday Night

Met up with the usual bunch of girls to celebrate Katina's 23rd...getting old Kat...getting old

Pink Salt

We recently had a reshuffle of office seating and I now sit right in between two managers (lucky me...not). On the bright side I do get to hear all the latest office goss and I think that my manager is trying to organise a team dinner at Pink Salt. This won’t mean anything to anyone unless you are a fan of ‘My Restaurant Rules’.

It amazes me what people will do to try get seats, name dropping, exaggeration - Neil can talk the socks off anyone! and if anyone is going to get us on TV it’ll be him!

Easter

Only 3 weeks till the Easter Long weekend - I'm counting down the days!

Did anyone notice how cold it was this morning??