Home of Jules

Cliche title, I know

Does time fly or what! It’s the freaking last day of the year already, so soon. I have to say, it’s been quite an eventful year. Or as I recall it anyway. Time for a recap? In no particular order:

1) Well, I officially launched Buibui on the 1st of January. Business has been slow, but at least I did make some sales hehe. Tho by this rate, it will take some time before I actually make profit. But no matter, it’s the new year ahead!

2) This year, I bought myself a new phone AND a new camera. 2 new gadgets in a year, I was almost stone broke XD

3) My dear friend Sharon passed away at the age of barely 19…

4) Was househunting with Calvin and we thought we found THE home. Until his bad car accident which gave me the shock of my life (so far). That sure messed up the plans, but no matter cause he’s safe.

5) Oh yeah, speaking of which. My first accident happened when a motorcycle crashed into my car. I had the whole door replaced cause it was too damaged.

6) I finally left the lingerie world to return to streetwear. See ya, Xixili. JS wants me and I’m happier here than I’ve ever been on other jobs lol.

7) Did a headstand on my own in yoga class What an achievement lol.

A SUPER fun holiday trip to PD with Jo and HueyPeng with our respective boyfriends. Such a sweet time, I’m missing that so much lol.

9) OH! Paintball! Had my first session, Wazzuh!!! Would love to go again! XD

10) It’s the year where I realised that money CAN buy happiness in today’s world. Where everything is ABOUT money money money. And I’ve became a little stingier and more careful than before lol.

11) Went for my first work trip. First ever lol. Just a quick trip to Singapore, but it was quite the experience.

12) Had a blast on my 24th birthday with multiple celebrations with different groups of people throughout the week. I think there were like, 7 separate celebrations haha.

13) Recently, I have a pet again ^^ A week later, I got another one, so now I have 2 lol. My precious Goliath the veiltail betta @office, and Zeus the Half-moon betta @home. I never used to like pet fishes, but I just discovered a new fancy for betta fishies hehe.

Onwards to a brand new year!!!

2009 is just around the corner and what most people are doing now is making resolutions!

New year resolutions? I used to always make them, but when have I ever kept them? Probably was too immature and carefree to bother. Not to mention, making silly resolutions that I knew I couldn’t keep haha. This time around, let’s try to make some practical and rational resolutions now, shall we? And again just TRY to remember to keep them haha.

In the year 2009, I resolve to:

1) Put career first. I want to be great at my job, and I want my business to succeed. Work hard, to be on top. I want to earn well, so that I can comfortably have all the things that I want

2) Love myself. And putting myself first before putting other people. Selfish, but practical in today’s world. Oh, while I’m at it, enjoy life to the fullest while I still have my youth. I’m not gonna let anyone else hold me down..

What? You were expecting the usual “Lose weight”, “Quit smoking”, “Save money” type of resolutions? Haha, then you don’t know me enough XD

I eat as I please without worrying about weight problems, cause where’s the enjoyment in life if you refrain from eating yummy food? Moderation, people! 

I enjoy smoking and don’t intend to quit just YET. I do intend to quit some day, when I’m making family plans with my future hubby. Well, I don’t smoke that much anyway.

Lastly, come on. Saving money is what EVERYONE should do, right? Need they make a new year’s resolution out of that? Really now.

Thoughts to ponder, huh? What are YOUR resolutions?

Hehe, I’m loving having Goliath so much that I decided to get another fishy to keep at home Most of the aquarium shops only have Veiltails like Goliath. The common normal types. I didn’t want the same type cause I know that there are many different types of Bettas. I bought the tank and stuff first, and was determined to only buy a fish when I find a different type.

So Calvin drove me all around Puchong area looking for fish shops. All of them either don’t have Bettas, or they only have the normal Veiltails. It’s only at (I think) the 4th or 5th shop that we finally found a different type. And they only have 4 of them! So I made my pick and bought one of them Half-moon Bettas ^^

My beautiful fishy in his new home!

I call him Zeus, hehe. Here you see him is his normal look, and all flared up.
 

I’m guessing that if I ever find other Betta variants, I’m gonna buy him too and collect them all

OK now where was I? It feels like this month, time flew by real quick. Way too eventful haha. Jimmy’s wedding, big boss back, office moving, stock rush, Christmas… My god, suddenly it’s Christmas already. I’ve been going home real late for the past couple of weeks, I’m obviously exhausted. I’m trying to recall what happened last week lol.

Stock rush for the year end. So much to do that I had Calvin to come over to help out. Nothing much to talk about the stock rush haha. So fast forward to last weekend then. Jo came over on Saturday and we went out for dinner, then to Zouk. We arrived so early that they hadn’t even opened the doors yet. Since it was so early, the rooms were so empty haha. So we visitted and checked out each one of the rooms in Zouk. Kind of small, especially Velvet and Barsonic. However I don’t understand why Pleasuredome was so crowdless. Most popular must be the overcrowded Phuture. My fave also, cause of the R&B and HipHop.

The next day we went to Sungei Wang for CNY shopping. After lunch, we only managed to buy 2 items each. She was having a bad headache, possibly migraine, so she had to go home. She sent me to Sunway Pyramid where I shopped for Christmas presents while waiting for Calvin to meet me. Bumped into Sufi at Topshop *hugs*. We had dinner at Wendy’s, then went to buy presents for the kids. No, not OUR kids. His nephew Scott and niece Julia. After that, sweetie bought a home for my new fishy, food pellets and water treatment.

On Monday, Calvin was at my workplace to help out in inventory again. So at lunchtime, we went to get my new fishy. Christmas gift from him this year lol. I picked out a reddish Betta Splenden (aka fighting fish). It looked pretty in the shop but he turned whitish when we brought him to his new home. I guess he’s frightened, poor thing. Behold, my darling Goliath~!

Clever fishy does not react to my ‘attacking’ finger anymore… So now I have to play with him either with a mirror, or with a bright coloured pen ‘acting’ like another fishy.

The only spot I have for him on my clutter-ish work desk.

Tuesday, it was the day before Christmas Eve. I played Santa and gave each of my colleagues a candy cane. I even wrote a note tied with a ribbon too lol.

Alfred sayang me for that, but Ron complained about the cheap gift lol. Cacat, tis the season for giving and it’s the thought that counts, right? XD Didn’t do much for Christmas eve tho. Just had crappy dinner at Antonio’s and chilled at Jimmy’s place a bit. Then Ron called, and we went to meet him at the Curve for Starbucks lol. Just for the sake of going out, cause I was totally rotting being indoors on a holiday eve watching ancient times chinese drama ^^;;

Ok, I know I’ve been missing for a while, but I’ve been super busy that you cannot even imagine! It was such an eventful week, a routine week that ends with a lazy weekend sounds good right about now.

First of all, Monday was a public holiday, so that’s one day gone lol. Then moving day was on Wednesday. So Tuesday was busy with a bit of work and a bit of packing. Went over to Calvin’s place that night to sleep over for my own convenience cause I had to drop by client’s office in Puchong as early as possible. Got into a small quarrel with dad over that, but never mind.

Then Wednesday! Here comes the big day! Early morning I dropped by client’s office as planned, and rushed to office by 10am as I promised Alfred. Made it just in time lol. Packing time! Ok, I don’t need to do a lot of carrying or whatever cause that’s the men’s job, but still I packed a lot, cleaned, etc. Still tiring nonetheless! Moving took the entire day, I even stayed to have dinner with my colleagues lol. Got home, refreshed with a hot shower, and ploped straight to bed.

The next day, unpacked a little bit. Got the workstations to their spots and “resurrected” our PCs from the boxes. Cleaned some more. Got into an argument with the goreng stall owner downstairs cause I saw them pushing my car from upstairs but when I ran down to confront them, they denied =_= I know the car won’t budge/damage but still it’s wrong to disturb a private car! Gave them a piece of my mind lol. Big boss arrived in the evening with a Hongkie colleague, Lun. Dinner with all the colleagues, and after-dinner beer while mingling hehe.

Friday, helped out with the tagging of some stocks, cause Ron and Lun were at the client’s warehouse tagging another lot of stock. Finally I successfully worked a tagging gun haha! Noob That, too, took the whole day. After work, that’s where the fun began! Dinner first at Sunway Pyramid’s Gasoline with Ron and Lun. Then off to Waikiki in TTDI Plaza for drinking with boss. Not quite a place for young clubbers tho but I guess it was ok. At least I’ve heard of most of the songs haha. But the music soon switched from retro to hiphop, so it was cool! Danced, drank, laughed… It was quite fun, actually.

Still had to get to work on Saturday morning as usual, of course. I didn’t drink that much, so I was spared from any terrible hangover haha. I was boss’s driver that morning =_=;;; Followed them to Semenyih, then drove boss to Armada Hotel before heading back to office myself. I totally missed lunch and just had a pack of biscuits Stayed til evening, helping to continue tagging the stock. Then we left for a Saturday night chill, at the same time showing Lun around KL city. Alor for food, Sungei Wang for window shopping, and a walk outdoors to see the nightlife in the city. We stumbled upon the silent disco in front of Pavilion. Looked stupid at first, but since it was free entry and we had nothing to do anyway, why not? Soon we realised that it’s really not that bad lol. I bet we still looked silly, but the concept isn’t as stupid as I assumed after all. No noise pollution, being able to switch channels between 2 DJs, to control volume… It’s ok! Would like to try a proper silent disco one day =D

Boss called for clubbing again, so we left the silent disco early to go home and change for clubbing. But when we were already out of the city only we received the call that it’s cancelled =_= Potong stim! If only we knew earlier, then we wouldn’t have left the silent disco! Bah, nevermind. Ended up going to Naili’s for a drink and chitchat til past 1am. Sleepy already, so went home to rest.

Slept in on Sunday, naturally Spent the evening with Calvin, watching L Change The World and having dinner. Nothing much cause I was feeling so tired.

This week’s not quite back to routine yet. The year end is crazy for the apparel industry, busy as heck. We have 3 different customers’ stocks waiting to be tagged/packed and delivered, all around the same time! Kelvin having a headache on how to schedule everything lol. The rest of us not spared cause we need to help out with the tagging/packing, or else it’ll be impossible to meet the deadline.

Sigh, I see my colleagues more than I see anyone else, and lately even more! Ah, my second family…

PS, it’s been a while since I had home-cooked dinner until today. I gobbled down mom’s cooking like I haven’t eaten all day. It was the most delicious ever! Even if it was just the simplest rice with blanched vege, minced meat tofu and chicken soup. Yum!

Big boss called yesterday and spoke to me for a bit. He gave me an unofficial appraisal and said that he’s pretty happy with my work so far and that my immediate boss Alfred was actually praising about me to him. Alfred told boss, “I admire Julie for her efficiency. Everytime I give her a task, she always gets it done quick.”

Wow. That’s the first time that I ever had a superior at work “admire” me for my work. I must be doing something right =D YES! I managed to maintain my efficiency and be consistent ^^ Job after job lol. Even back in Xixili, I had praises for my speed at work. But still… “admire”… hehehe XD

Way to go, Jules! Keep it up, keep it up!

My colleague Ron drove us to Kenanga after work last Saturday. I needed to buy some stock and he just wanted to tag along to jalan-jalan. While looking for the store that I purchased from before (Pink Colour Enterprise), I was also browsing other stores to see if there was anything new.

So I found this other wholesaler with similar products as Pink, and I initially intended to just buy what I needed from there. Then the salesgirl started to ask strange questions. She spoke in Mandarin and started by asking me where I’m from. I answered her “KL” and continued browsing. She asked again the same question. Puzzled, I asked her what did she mean. Apparently she wanted to know where is my shop. So ok, I told her that my shop is actually online. Then she said (roughly translated) ”Oh, we don’t sell for online”.

Huh? Then I got a little confused and thought she meant that they don’t sell online. I explained that I’m buying their stock in hand and selling it on MY online shop. Again she said that they “don’t sell for online”. Both of us fed up of explaining (cause she spoke in Mandarin and I spoke in Cantonese), she called her co-worker to help. The actual explaination shocked the sense out of me.

Apparently THAT store has a policy of refusing to sell to online resellers, ie people like me. I got a little pissed and told them off straight, “Right now, you just need to sell to me. How I decide to resell the items, how is that any of your business??” 

The reason? “Our boss already said that we don’t sell to online businesses because you can afford to mark up to a minimal margin and still profit. The low prices will make our products seem cheap.”

Now that really took me off-guard. I shook my head and just walked out of the store, mumbling to Ron about that nonsense. Cause first of all, their products ARE cheap. They all come from China! Probably the same supplier that the other wholesalers in Kenanga got THEIR items from. Heck, if their items are so ‘un-cheap’ and good quality, mark up the prices, why doncha. What nonsense! How can they actually refuse to sell? Does the boss really know how to make business?

So I returned to Pink and got my stock, no questions asked. And I’m happy with that. The products are EXACTLY the same la, dude =_=;; Like I said, all the same cheap suppliers from China. How can you tell if I bought it here or there anyway? They’re all the same! Same, I tells ya! Exact!

In fact come to think of it, they really had NO RIGHT to ask me the question of how am I going to resell. It’s really none of their bee’s wax and I had the right to remain silent. In fact I could just bluff and tell her, “Pasar malam“. Sheez! Ban that stupid discriminating store!!!

Just too bad that I didn’t get the name… =_=;;