今個 long weekend, 正值詹占的樂隊去 Maxville 比賽,，咁我就當然 tag along, 舊年 Maxville 既 weekend, 我仲打緊石膏耶，咁快就一年咯～
本來是計劃整個 weekend 都逃離多人多的，星期六＆一可以去首都逛逛，但由於我們經已破產，再加上新的家還有很多的 improvement 要做，所以決定今日放工去，聽日黃昏返．與其說是旅行，其實是我去幫手做私雞，一來一回唔塞車都 at least 十個鐘，我既青春就係咁樣一去不復返，哀哉，哀哉！XD
不過，咁啱 church 今個星期日有 meeting, 因為如果今個 weekend 開唔到會，黎緊既星期五既 outreach 活動真係唔知點搞，所以星期六晚返多人多就真係 fit 哂，神既 timing真係...
But at the same time, it means that I'm going to be soooooo tired again this weekend.
雖然要做私雞，不過有得出去走走也很開心呀，開心到呢，現在是完全沒有心情工作啦，就是在等下班．今朝趕頭趕命的把中午deadline的做好（為什麼又趕頭趕命的？又是多得我既好老細啦，一兩個月前已經知道要做 report, 但佢可以尋日先寫完 conclusion 然後下晝先話我知我要做幾個 extra appendices，係一個令我好想兜把兜把comp死佢既 moment), 今日打算兩點就鬆人，所以而家就唔想開ｄ新野黎做．勁 hae.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Identity Theft
Looking at the credit card bill two days ago and found that there's this suspicious item. 100元正 in a Esso in Lancaster, which is almost to Montreal. 多番查證後確定不是自己的 purchase, 就叫詹占(是我們的 credit card) 打電話去 credit card 度報案.
The lady on the phone, I don't know if she's simply stupid or bad customer service, she told us to call the Esso on our own and tell them to give us a refund. We were like, WTF! Who the hell would give you a refund by calling them and said that you didn't make the purchase?? And she told us to find out the phone number on our own when we were not even that sure if the item description means the Esso in Lancaster cos the description was a short form. It was just a guess, although we are quite sure the guess was right. The lady didn't give us any info at all. She even said that the card was swiped there so it's really not a fraud. Are you stupid or something? Of course the card, or the magnetic strip of the card was somehow swiped in order to make the purchase. How else was the purchase made otherwise? Our card does not have that paypass chip. The fact that the magnetic strip got swiped at the location does not mean that it's not fraud. The strip could have been faked. Moron!
She basically said that the credit card company can't help us n we should pursue to have a refund from the gas station instead. What kind of customer service was that? I thought that credit card have this fraud protection so that we would not have to pay for anything that we didn't purchase. If this card is really that insecure and that there's no protection, I don't think that I want to continue with it anymore.
Anyway fine, we call the Esso and the person was actually quite nice. Instead of treating us like a wacko who just wanted to 騙錢 he actually gave us some info. He said that if we have the exact time of purchase, he could pull out the video tape to see if we can find the person. But if we don't have the exact time (which we don't have of course), he can't help us and that we have to call the credit card company. Not surprised, we don't really expect him to give us the refund so 順灘 anyway.
Called the credit card again the next day and this time, we successfully got transferred to the dispute department. This department was also a little stuipd, they don't seem to quite understand our point n told us that maybe we made the purchase but the amount was not correct. So, it is a dispute, not a fraud. But we checked our records and there's no way we would have got gas that day (we got gas 3 days before and 2 days after. We don't usually need to get gas in less than 3 days). Since they thought that it was a dispute, they tried to tell us to tell the gas station to correct the purchasing amount. This basically sent us in a circle. The gas station is NOT going to give us any refunds, especially we don't have any receipt to prove the amount we spent since we DID NOT spend any money there.
After explaining the situation a few times, they finally understands and sent us to the security department. Our card is cancelled and we are waiting for a new card to arrive.
Instead of getting all scared of this identity theft, I'm more pissed off then anything at that lady that we called when we first found out about the theft. Really really really want to file a complain about her.
The lady on the phone, I don't know if she's simply stupid or bad customer service, she told us to call the Esso on our own and tell them to give us a refund. We were like, WTF! Who the hell would give you a refund by calling them and said that you didn't make the purchase?? And she told us to find out the phone number on our own when we were not even that sure if the item description means the Esso in Lancaster cos the description was a short form. It was just a guess, although we are quite sure the guess was right. The lady didn't give us any info at all. She even said that the card was swiped there so it's really not a fraud. Are you stupid or something? Of course the card, or the magnetic strip of the card was somehow swiped in order to make the purchase. How else was the purchase made otherwise? Our card does not have that paypass chip. The fact that the magnetic strip got swiped at the location does not mean that it's not fraud. The strip could have been faked. Moron!
She basically said that the credit card company can't help us n we should pursue to have a refund from the gas station instead. What kind of customer service was that? I thought that credit card have this fraud protection so that we would not have to pay for anything that we didn't purchase. If this card is really that insecure and that there's no protection, I don't think that I want to continue with it anymore.
Anyway fine, we call the Esso and the person was actually quite nice. Instead of treating us like a wacko who just wanted to 騙錢 he actually gave us some info. He said that if we have the exact time of purchase, he could pull out the video tape to see if we can find the person. But if we don't have the exact time (which we don't have of course), he can't help us and that we have to call the credit card company. Not surprised, we don't really expect him to give us the refund so 順灘 anyway.
Called the credit card again the next day and this time, we successfully got transferred to the dispute department. This department was also a little stuipd, they don't seem to quite understand our point n told us that maybe we made the purchase but the amount was not correct. So, it is a dispute, not a fraud. But we checked our records and there's no way we would have got gas that day (we got gas 3 days before and 2 days after. We don't usually need to get gas in less than 3 days). Since they thought that it was a dispute, they tried to tell us to tell the gas station to correct the purchasing amount. This basically sent us in a circle. The gas station is NOT going to give us any refunds, especially we don't have any receipt to prove the amount we spent since we DID NOT spend any money there.
After explaining the situation a few times, they finally understands and sent us to the security department. Our card is cancelled and we are waiting for a new card to arrive.
Instead of getting all scared of this identity theft, I'm more pissed off then anything at that lady that we called when we first found out about the theft. Really really really want to file a complain about her.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Home Improvement
Have been working in the house almost every evening after work since last week. Very tiring, seriously. After 8 hours of work and still have to fix the house until like 9pm and then go home and sleep and get up in the morning to go to work again the next day. Good exercise but exhausting.
So far, I got the front porch all cleaned up with a lot and a lot of scrubbing. Next thing to do for it is to paint a protective layer to it so that it won't get so dirty and to protect the wood to make it last longer. However, it has been raining all week and painting can only be done when the wood is totally dry. Argh! What a bummer. Probably have to clean again before I can paint it when the weather gets nicer.
JJ has cleaned up the backyard a lot. The backyard has NOT be taken care of at all in years. The weeds are as high as my waist. It's probably too late this year to try to rescue it but we will try to partially remediate it so that we can start to grow something next year.
Another thing was to improve the kitchen floor. The kitchen is very dated and hasn't been having much upgrades. Considering that it is a rather old house, this means that the cupboards are very ugly and dirty and we just got a plumber to fix the drainage last week cos the sink was leaking. The kitchen floor is ok but some of the tiles on the floor are loose and cracked. The original plan was to replace those few tiles for now cos it was actually not too bad. Doesn't look good but it's functional so we thought that we would just leave it. But of course, we couldn't find a matching tile and apparently, whoever did the tiles before used wall tiles on the floor and that's y there were so many cracked ones.
And we happened to find some laminated floor on sale so we decided that we would rip up the floor and put in the new floor ourselves. And the mission started. Once we actually start ripping up the floor, we realized that whoever did the floor put a wire mash underneath the tiles and 'glue' the tiles to the mash with something like quick sand or something. This means that we have to rip up this quick sand thing and the wire up also. The wire was really sharp and we were all cut up. And then we found that whoever did the tile floor was lazy and only put the new stuff on top of an old flooring. So there's another layer of linoleum flooring which we had to rip up. AND THEN we found that there YET ANOTHER layer underneath the linoleum. This time it was vinyl tiles. And the vinyl tiles has nails all over them. So basically, we have to rip up the tiles, the wire with the quick sand thing, linoleum, nails and vinyl tiles. Took us a lot of hard work and sweat and time and muscles to do it ourselves.
We've learned that flooring is very hard on your back cos you pretty much hv to bent over all the time. Normally, ppl would pay someone else to do this back-breaking work but since we are very broke right now and we still haven't got a window guy to fix our windows yet, we had to do it ourselves.
The ripping finally finished yesterday and we started to put down the new laminated floor. Thanks to JJ's frd who has quite an extensive workshop in his garage and lent us a lot of his tools. Otherwise, we won't be able to finished ripping the floor so soon and will have to buy the tool to cut the planks. We have put 1/3 of the new floor down already and are hoping that we will finish today (1:30pm right now and still haven't started yet cos JJ has to go to work). Although the color of the floor totally doesn't match the stupid ugly orange wall, we are still very very happy about our 1/3 new kitchen floor already. We are quite proud of ourselves!! :D
I definitely learned quite a bit from this little project. For instance, I've never used a crowbar in my life before. And there's also this other tool called bear claw nail puller that is used to remove nails. Very neat indeed. Not the fastest tools to use to pull out easy nail but it's very effective on those ones that are pretty much impossible to pull with a crowbar. And there's the jig saw, scroll saw and all those. Quite fun actually.
But then at the same time, it's so much work that I doubt that I can handle it in 5 years. I'll probably break my back for real if I try to do it again 5 years from now. Hopefully, I'll have enough money by then to have someone else to do the labour.
Maybe I'll post some before and after pictures when I got time to download them onto my computer.
So far, I got the front porch all cleaned up with a lot and a lot of scrubbing. Next thing to do for it is to paint a protective layer to it so that it won't get so dirty and to protect the wood to make it last longer. However, it has been raining all week and painting can only be done when the wood is totally dry. Argh! What a bummer. Probably have to clean again before I can paint it when the weather gets nicer.
JJ has cleaned up the backyard a lot. The backyard has NOT be taken care of at all in years. The weeds are as high as my waist. It's probably too late this year to try to rescue it but we will try to partially remediate it so that we can start to grow something next year.
Another thing was to improve the kitchen floor. The kitchen is very dated and hasn't been having much upgrades. Considering that it is a rather old house, this means that the cupboards are very ugly and dirty and we just got a plumber to fix the drainage last week cos the sink was leaking. The kitchen floor is ok but some of the tiles on the floor are loose and cracked. The original plan was to replace those few tiles for now cos it was actually not too bad. Doesn't look good but it's functional so we thought that we would just leave it. But of course, we couldn't find a matching tile and apparently, whoever did the tiles before used wall tiles on the floor and that's y there were so many cracked ones.
And we happened to find some laminated floor on sale so we decided that we would rip up the floor and put in the new floor ourselves. And the mission started. Once we actually start ripping up the floor, we realized that whoever did the floor put a wire mash underneath the tiles and 'glue' the tiles to the mash with something like quick sand or something. This means that we have to rip up this quick sand thing and the wire up also. The wire was really sharp and we were all cut up. And then we found that whoever did the tile floor was lazy and only put the new stuff on top of an old flooring. So there's another layer of linoleum flooring which we had to rip up. AND THEN we found that there YET ANOTHER layer underneath the linoleum. This time it was vinyl tiles. And the vinyl tiles has nails all over them. So basically, we have to rip up the tiles, the wire with the quick sand thing, linoleum, nails and vinyl tiles. Took us a lot of hard work and sweat and time and muscles to do it ourselves.
We've learned that flooring is very hard on your back cos you pretty much hv to bent over all the time. Normally, ppl would pay someone else to do this back-breaking work but since we are very broke right now and we still haven't got a window guy to fix our windows yet, we had to do it ourselves.
The ripping finally finished yesterday and we started to put down the new laminated floor. Thanks to JJ's frd who has quite an extensive workshop in his garage and lent us a lot of his tools. Otherwise, we won't be able to finished ripping the floor so soon and will have to buy the tool to cut the planks. We have put 1/3 of the new floor down already and are hoping that we will finish today (1:30pm right now and still haven't started yet cos JJ has to go to work). Although the color of the floor totally doesn't match the stupid ugly orange wall, we are still very very happy about our 1/3 new kitchen floor already. We are quite proud of ourselves!! :D
I definitely learned quite a bit from this little project. For instance, I've never used a crowbar in my life before. And there's also this other tool called bear claw nail puller that is used to remove nails. Very neat indeed. Not the fastest tools to use to pull out easy nail but it's very effective on those ones that are pretty much impossible to pull with a crowbar. And there's the jig saw, scroll saw and all those. Quite fun actually.
But then at the same time, it's so much work that I doubt that I can handle it in 5 years. I'll probably break my back for real if I try to do it again 5 years from now. Hopefully, I'll have enough money by then to have someone else to do the labour.
Maybe I'll post some before and after pictures when I got time to download them onto my computer.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wedding Pictures
I don't really understand the people who takes like a billion posed wedding pictures, in ten million different outfits. This is especially common in HK.
真係唔係好明，點解d人要影咁多。嗰d係公園呀，郊外呀影嗰d都算嘞，最唔明既係而家好似好興喺街度影，喺銅鑼灣呀，中環呀，d市區既地方影，影到好似好 in 咁，真係唔知喺度做乜。仲要呢，好多時都唔係著禮服影架噃，男既都ok啦，都係 tuxedo, 女既就唔係著晚裝就係著d唔知乜裙影，我覺得係影寫真多過結婚相，基本上，又唔係結婚嗰日影，又唔係著禮服，又有好多擺 pose 唔知佢望緊邊度既單人相，同結婚都唔知有乜關係。你不如話你影寫真集好過啦。
更攞命既係有時候，個男同女都唔係太好樣，寫真集模式既相真係睇到其他人想嘔，影結婚相唔同，我個人認為，結婚相，either 係結婚嗰日既紀錄，or 係影幸福，所以男女個樣就算唔好都唔緊要，望落去仍然會很順眼，但嗰d懶 in 懶潮既相，真係唔係人人都能夠 pull it off.
仲要好興攞住d一男一女既動物公仔影，真係好唔知想點。如果嗰公仔真係喺你哋兩個人之間有一種 special meaning, then fine, 但好多人真係唔知點解好鐘意影d公仔，懶 artistic 咁，真係覺得有d無謂兼無聊。Once again, I don't see how's the related to wedding，吉祥物牙？！
But there're exceptions. One of my gd frds actually got some _really_ nice ones done. Not too many. But very nice and sweet. 影到好幸福既感覺出黎。喺俾人見到會好羨慕嗰隻。加上我個 frd 個樣幾好架喎，所以我睇完佢d相真係凳佢好開心。雖然我出席唔到佢個婚禮，但都會為佢好興奮！haha...
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
做業住囉 :]
之前係咁叫窮就是因為這樣，租屋都租了好幾年耶，也是時候升級了．
多人多的房地產呀，一點都不覺得有受金融風暴的影響耶，就算是有影響，也真是皮毛得不得了，bidding war 仍然 everywhere, 我們又不喜歡住 suburb （我至討厭就是動不動就開車的習慣，一來不環保，二來令人都懶惰起來），我們喜歡的那區，能夠 afford 到的屋也是豆潤咁細，同埋超爆舊．無辦法啦，鬼叫我窮咩．
屋細其實無所謂，鬼死咁大間屋執都執死你，我識得太多人間屋永遠都有一間房 or 一個廳係唔用既，除左鋪塵之外，都唔知要黎做乜．現在的，是比我的 ideal 小了點點，但 size-wise 還是蠻好的．
間屋真係ｏｋ舊的，咁高的樓齡，但很多好東西也沒翻新過，唉，不過暫時都住得落人，遲ｄ儲到錢時才裝修吧．
唯一可幸的是我們能夠攞到貨款利息可以說是低一點點，但供樓還是會有點吃力，overseas travel (except HK) 暫時想都不用想 >_<，真的很興幸我哋喺買屋前去埋 Machu Picchu．
尋日正式攞到鎖匙囉，放工就去睇睇啦，發現上手留左好多垃圾同雜物，bear 一聲，雜物堆中，我哋搵到兩樣我哋可能會有用既野，其他的都是 junk, 淨係丟垃圾都有排搞．尋日快手巡左一下，然後就搞一下衞生，勁多塵，我負青掃地，sigh... 真係好彩間屋唔係大乍，至鬼憎做家務．一掃，就發現原來好已經好多年冇掃過地，通常都係用吸塵機搞掂．掃地實在太痛苦喇！
聽落去間屋好似好多野要搞咁，但其實係ｏｋ架，加上我既要求唔太高，所以真係ｏｋ架，如果我哋 somehow 真係 manage 到去 upgrade 佢，呢間屋既 potential 都唔錯架．得閒影ｄ相先 post.
不知不覺其實住四年 basement喇, 終於可以上樓 lu~~~
多人多的房地產呀，一點都不覺得有受金融風暴的影響耶，就算是有影響，也真是皮毛得不得了，bidding war 仍然 everywhere, 我們又不喜歡住 suburb （我至討厭就是動不動就開車的習慣，一來不環保，二來令人都懶惰起來），我們喜歡的那區，能夠 afford 到的屋也是豆潤咁細，同埋超爆舊．無辦法啦，鬼叫我窮咩．
屋細其實無所謂，鬼死咁大間屋執都執死你，我識得太多人間屋永遠都有一間房 or 一個廳係唔用既，除左鋪塵之外，都唔知要黎做乜．現在的，是比我的 ideal 小了點點，但 size-wise 還是蠻好的．
間屋真係ｏｋ舊的，咁高的樓齡，但很多好東西也沒翻新過，唉，不過暫時都住得落人，遲ｄ儲到錢時才裝修吧．
唯一可幸的是我們能夠攞到貨款利息可以說是低一點點，但供樓還是會有點吃力，overseas travel (except HK) 暫時想都不用想 >_<，真的很興幸我哋喺買屋前去埋 Machu Picchu．
尋日正式攞到鎖匙囉，放工就去睇睇啦，發現上手留左好多垃圾同雜物，bear 一聲，雜物堆中，我哋搵到兩樣我哋可能會有用既野，其他的都是 junk, 淨係丟垃圾都有排搞．尋日快手巡左一下，然後就搞一下衞生，勁多塵，我負青掃地，sigh... 真係好彩間屋唔係大乍，至鬼憎做家務．一掃，就發現原來好已經好多年冇掃過地，通常都係用吸塵機搞掂．掃地實在太痛苦喇！
聽落去間屋好似好多野要搞咁，但其實係ｏｋ架，加上我既要求唔太高，所以真係ｏｋ架，如果我哋 somehow 真係 manage 到去 upgrade 佢，呢間屋既 potential 都唔錯架．得閒影ｄ相先 post.
不知不覺其實住四年 basement喇, 終於可以上樓 lu~~~
Friday, July 10, 2009
Edible Arrangements
I don't know if the new company is any gd at the point, but they certainly knows how to boost morale. Right now, the two offices are still separated as they are trying to find a big enough building to accommodate everyone.
Today, our office received this yummy from the new company from edible arrangements.. to basically thank us for being coorporative in the transition. I mean, we didn't really do anything. I guess doing nothing is the best thing cos it means that we didn't riot.
For anyone who does not know what edible arrangement is all about:
http://www.ediblearrangements.com/
I have always wondered what edible arrangements actually sells and today, I finally got a chance to have a sample. YUMMY! :]
Today, our office received this yummy from the new company from edible arrangements.. to basically thank us for being coorporative in the transition. I mean, we didn't really do anything. I guess doing nothing is the best thing cos it means that we didn't riot.
For anyone who does not know what edible arrangement is all about:
http://www.ediblearrangements.com/
I have always wondered what edible arrangements actually sells and today, I finally got a chance to have a sample. YUMMY! :]
輕度夢遊症
前兩天詹占說我在睡夢中打人喇，還不止一下啦，笑爆．
尋日朝佢又問我是不是發夢跑步啦，good guess, 我是發夢在跑樓梯耶．
昨晚半夜醒了，詹占又說我發開口夢，說了 "Sign languges, please". 但我真是不知道我發了什麼夢會咁講．
一直以來我間唔中都會瞓瞓吓 fing 手 fing 腳，都唔係第一次打中詹占架喇，真的是苦了詹占．詹占話我有時會好大力咁 fing 手落牆度，令我哋最大惑不解既係，點解我咁都可以唔醒？
近呢一年半載以來，常常都夢到某中學老屍，作死，做乜成日夢見佢？簡直係擾人清夢．
尋日朝佢又問我是不是發夢跑步啦，good guess, 我是發夢在跑樓梯耶．
昨晚半夜醒了，詹占又說我發開口夢，說了 "Sign languges, please". 但我真是不知道我發了什麼夢會咁講．
一直以來我間唔中都會瞓瞓吓 fing 手 fing 腳，都唔係第一次打中詹占架喇，真的是苦了詹占．詹占話我有時會好大力咁 fing 手落牆度，令我哋最大惑不解既係，點解我咁都可以唔醒？
近呢一年半載以來，常常都夢到某中學老屍，作死，做乜成日夢見佢？簡直係擾人清夢．
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Disappointing Summer
This summer is quite disappointing so far. Has been so cold. I had to wear long sleeves shirt and pants to cycle to work instead of shorts. July already man.
Has also been a very wet summer, raining pretty much every week. Well... I'm glad that I haven't planned any camping trip this year.
I guess the cool weather means that by the time I got to work, I wouldn't look like I just got dumped on by a bucket of.
Has also been a very wet summer, raining pretty much every week. Well... I'm glad that I haven't planned any camping trip this year.
Our little herb garden is doing quite well though. Have eaten some of the harvest already. Pretty pleased with it. :)
Monday, July 6, 2009
合併
公司既合併終於落實了．上星期去了簽約耶，喺呢間公司咁多年，現在終於有一張約喇．不過也不是什麼大不了的，又不是升職加薪，其實重要的條款都可以算是一樣，只是現在白紙黑字了．
名義上是 merge, 實際上是大粒將我們賣了啦，大粒仍然是我的大粒，但他不再是最大粒，還會有一粒更大的在他之上．
新公司新制度，規模是大了，flexibility 就細了，很多的規條，不可著牛仔t-shirt, 遲到一定要通知 HR, 請假又要向 HR 申請（以前通常是向大粒講聲就可以）．唉，不可著牛仔t-shirt，短褲波鞋更加唔駛諗，覺得好煩．
新制度之下，基本上開ＯＴ想出ＯＴ既 1.5 人工係 impossible，我就唔會再同佢開ＯＴ，開左少少ＯＴ都會遲到早退咁補返數．
算是有了 benefit, 但只係得保險，都冇工職金，保險又保得少，有 benefit 同冇 benefit 無乜分別．
But it seems like the ppl who are working there are quite happy. Maybe it's a gd company. I don't know. I'll have to see.
名義上是 merge, 實際上是大粒將我們賣了啦，大粒仍然是我的大粒，但他不再是最大粒，還會有一粒更大的在他之上．
新公司新制度，規模是大了，flexibility 就細了，很多的規條，不可著牛仔t-shirt, 遲到一定要通知 HR, 請假又要向 HR 申請（以前通常是向大粒講聲就可以）．唉，不可著牛仔t-shirt，短褲波鞋更加唔駛諗，覺得好煩．
新制度之下，基本上開ＯＴ想出ＯＴ既 1.5 人工係 impossible，我就唔會再同佢開ＯＴ，開左少少ＯＴ都會遲到早退咁補返數．
算是有了 benefit, 但只係得保險，都冇工職金，保險又保得少，有 benefit 同冇 benefit 無乜分別．
But it seems like the ppl who are working there are quite happy. Maybe it's a gd company. I don't know. I'll have to see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
