lazy at home when home is not home

A very lazy day! All I did today was sleeping and sleeping. I was so tired last night that I didn't wake up till 9 a.m. And even then I still felt tired. I had a 2-hour nap after lunch! I didn't feel like doing anything at all. No gym.  Flatmate and her boyfriend came home around 6 p.m. And I suddenly felt 'home is not home' again. Feeling stressed living with her now. Wish the day when she moves out comes soon. But before she moves out, I got quite a lot of things to sort out and I'm worried if she'll pay off her share of the bills and rent.

*****

Breakfast: blueberry muffin given by a friend of mine

Oh, it was tasty and big!! I like its texture - it was solid 

Lunch: soup leftovers

Simple and healthy

Dinner: Home-made lasagne again!!

This time I tried to put more cheese on the top 

I also put aubergine at the bottom 

Dinner: The top layer looked good!

I like to eat it with rice :) 

ACCA exams done, what next?

Finally I finished the last ACCA exam for this semester today!! Yeah! I'm 'free' from studying for two months! I was still nervous this morning about the exam, partly because I hadn't worked hard enough on the revision for the exam today, also because the exam was much more difficult that I had expected. I had thought it'd be the easiest exam I had among the three and I hoped to get a high mark (above 80%) but it turned out it was the one with the lowest mark (67%). As I was doing the exam, I started feeling worried. Luckily I passed. Anyway, it didn't matter whether I got high marks or not, as long as I passed the exams! But it showed me I shouldn't underestimate the course.

The life of the past three months as ACCA student was different from what I had expected and the course was not as easy as I had thought. I wouldn't say I enjoyed studying it much, though I did gain some knowledge about business and accounting. I shouldn't complain because it helped me to get a student visa to stay in this country. It did help me to know more about myself: I don't think I'll be interested in doing accounting or business stuff like that, and somehow it makes me understand why some accounting people are so calculating...

I did feel relaxed and happy that I finished the ACCA exam today. But at the same time I felt like doing nothing. After exam, I walked past Deansgate where I saw lots of people in the protest march. I didn't feel like going anywhere but home then. I should have started planning for the change of flatmate but I didn't feel like doing that; it's something that I don't want to face, especially when it's got to do with my flatmate who I'm not happy with at the moment. I did nothing but had a short nap and surfed the internet before going out again in the late afternoon.

To treat myself, I had GBK dinner again! Should have tried not to spend too much money on dining out but I really like GBK burgers and chunky chips! Yummy yummy...

What next for this summer?

*****

Protest March (1)

(oh the man on the left was carrying a canon camera!)

  

Protest March (2)

(many people, a lot of traffic)

Is there more strike/protest to come? 

Window shopping at Marks & Spencer

Oh, I saw these mini silicon cases! Almost tempted to buy them... 

Window shopping at Sports Direct

Another Little Miss t-shirt

My today's ACCA exam results

Lunch: macaroni in yesterday's soup

Dinner: a mix of elderflower + L&P drinks

Dinner at GBK: BBQ burger

Dinner at GBK: Avocado Bacon Burger

Dinner at GBK: my all-time favourite chunky chips!

Dinner at GBK: a mix of two burgers

wow, see the sauce... 

Dinner at GBK

Funny faces of my ideal man! hahaha..

Nightmare - 日有所思(聽), 夜有所夢?

oh, had a nightmare last night about my tomorrow's exam! I dreamt that I was late for the exam (but the paper I did in the dream was different from the one I'll be taking tomorrow!), couldn't finish it on time, and was even not able to resit it till next semester! Am I too worried or anxious about the exam?

But the nightmare didn't really affect my day much. It was a typical lazy day - went to gym and bought a bit of foodstuff in the morning; did some ACCA revision while making Chinese soup; had burger dinner with a friend at GBK!

I heard about different things related to my ex-employer today - I guess that's why I keep dreaming of them. None of the things I've heard about them is positive. Whatever is said about them just shows how crap their management skills are and the fact that they don't respect people and are selfish. I think it's not only their management that made me frustrated but also the fact that I couldn't learn anything constructive from them - they can't handle things well!

Anyway, now I only want to focus on finishing tomorrow's exam and then move on and start my summer 'plan'!

*****

Lunch: Rice with lasagne

Oh I love it! Though it was not perfect.. 

Dinner: GBK

Their burgers are bigger and more tasty than Giraffe! 

Always satisfying...

Dinner: Avocado Bacon Burger (GBK)

Dinner: Cheese & Bacon Burger (GBK)

Good chats with friends about life and people

A busy day yesterday! So too tired to write anything last night (and I wanted to be a good girl by going to bed early) :p

Had a lunch gathering with an ex-colleague who had gone back to HK four years ago. She was visiting her younger brother with her mum for two weeks. It was also a good time for me to meet with some other old friends. Two of them are now mothers and they were the earliest to be at the Chinese restaurant with their children then! One of them was amazing, having to look after her 11-month old son and 3-year old daughter (and she still has a 5-year old daughter going to school!) while we yum cha. And later when we left, she was heading to a Chinese supermarket, which was quite a long walk away, with her two kids carrying lots of things as well! I can't imagine how I could handle a situation like that if I had two kids to look after! Anyway, we had a good chat at yum cha. All of us were trying to update what we had been up to. I had too little to say, as my future was too uncertain. One of the conversation topics was my ex-employer, the organization which I used to work for previously. None but one of us was still working there. It seemed everyone who had worked there before was not satisfied or happy with my ex-employer!

After yum cha, I had a drink at Debenhams cafe (which was actually a good place for drinks/chats) with two of them who had no children. My ex-colleague from HK told me and the other ex-colleague a lot about her stressful job in Hong Kong, strange things about people in HK she had met, men in HK (how difficult it was to find a good mature man!), one of our ex-colleagues, some stories about friends who had got married and had conflicts with their mothers-in-law. A very good chat indeed. Felt like there were friends who thought on the same line with you and shared some good observations/experience.

But having heard of those things about people and working in HK, I was 'terrified' and couldn't see a good prospect of going back to HK. :S But a chat with one of them later about working in the UK (her experience of working now again for our ex-employer) made me feel working in the UK wasn't better. Everyone there was news about which company/shop was to close down their branches, or go into administration, or lay off some of their staff, strikes, etc.

I also had an enjoyable burger dinner and good chat with another ex-colleague of mine at Giraffe. I complained about my flatmate who was so immature and selfish. I couldn't use a sensible way to deal with problems with her because she's just so ridiculous and can't see her mistakes. She makes me become a bad person while she's trying to be a 'good' person (in her eyes)! She's not the only immature person I know. When I looked back, I found there're many immature people like her who never know their own problems/mistakes but insist they're right and others are wrong and bad people.

What has this world become? It seems everything and people are not as right as they should be? Or, maybe that's life, that's how we can become a better person (by realizing those strange, ridiculous people/things and reflecting)?! I'm impressed by what one of my ex-colleagues said, 'variety is the spice of life, but sometimes too much spice gives us upset stomach!' (no wonder I've got upset stomach frequently! :p)

*****

Not many photos taken yesterday, since I forgot to bring with me my E1 baby!

(no photos on lunch food)

Drinks at Debenhams

What a sunny day!

Dinner: burgers at Giraffe

(the portion was not as big as and the sauce was not as in GBK!)

Spoiling immature people makes one suffer

What a hot day! But I chose to stay at home to do my ACCA revision - a bit of a waste of such good weather! :p Uncle Sunny woke me up around 7 a.m. but I could sleep till 8:30 a.m. Guess I was too tired yesterday (having walked a lot in hot weather). But staying home doesn't mean I'm ok coz flatmate's boyfriend was here the whole day! I felt like escaping when home's not home :(

This morning I found that a small part of the kitchen floor was flooded with soup - flatmate threw away a ready soup cup, which may still have some left when it was put into our rubbish bag (which had some holes!). She's careless sometimes.. I didn't plan to wrap up the mess because she should take the responsibility for it but at the end, I couldn't help it - I cleaned the floor and threw away the rubbish bag immediately, since the mess affected me (my poor slippers! :( ). It's a minor thing but that made me think about the facts that I have been spoiling my flatmate and also our little fight last night. She might have thought that she hasn't done anything wrong (e.g. let her boyfriend's stay and give him the key access to our flat, the frequent change of her moving out date) and she even thought she had been trying to do whatever she could for me (that's what she said last night..). But I don't think what she has done is 'appropriate'/right, though I have to admit that it's my fault that I have been spoiling her by not telling her directly what's gone wrong. Even on that little soup leaking thing this morning, I should have let her wrap up the mess. Today her boyfriend stayed in our flat, which reminded me of what my flatmate said last night that she wouldn't pay for the rent for the time when she will have moved out, but now her boyfriend's sharing our flat and I haven't charged him anything for bills or whatever! I feel like I'm her mother, who hasn't taught her well but spoiled her too much, and she hasn't learnt from her mistakes. *sigh* That's why children should sometimes learn the hard way or they'd never learn or get mature.

I don't need to be a mother to learn the parenting skills, and actually in many examples of interpersonal relationship we can learn a lot and apply the same skills to different people (whether it's our boss, our partner, our siblings). I always remember what a book that I have read before says, 'Your relationship with your family/parents is reflected in your relationship with your boss/colleagues.'

How can I not be upset by my flatmate again, whatever she does?

Oh by the way, last night I dreamt of my ex-employer and ex-colleagues again! Why why why?

*****

Lunch: burger with cheese & egg again! 

Dinner: a failed attempt of home-made lasagne :(

(the top layer was too dry, probably because of not enough sauce/cheese)

I'll try again soon!! 

Dinner: Lasagne was a mess :S 

I ate it with rice!! Not bad though.. 

Do I have communication problems with others?

What a warm day today! When I was sitting in my room this morning, I sweated!  When I went out in the afternoon, I could wear short-sleeve t-shirt! (second time only for this year!)

Gave a call to mum early this morning. My mobile phone was almost out of credit (only 70p left) and I hadn't topped it up yet, so I could only speak to her for about 5 minutes. Not bad. Sometimes I don't have much to tell her anyway. :p She said she's gonna travel to Guang Zhou (China) for 3 days on 1st July to 3rd July! Oh wish I could do travel like her! I reminded her to bring the camera I had given to her. She asked me if I needed her to send me anything before Christmas - wah, she's talking about Christmas already! Finally she asked if I'd go back to HK this year. :S

I went to an elderly caring home in Heaton Moor in the afternoon as they had an event in which they needed someone to do Chinese calligraphy. To be honest, I don't have confidence in my Chinese calligraphy skills and after this afternoon's event, I really feel I need to brush up my skills, if I want to continue earning a bit of money (呃飯食- 'cheat rice eat'! haha! :p) through Chinese calligraphy! I was the only Chinese in the caring home where there were some other stalls with people selling different kinds of stuff. At the beginning, I was worried that no one would be interested and I was wondering if I should reduce the price for one name from £1 to 50p. Fortunately at the end I got 13 customers. I gave £5 to the caring home (through an envelope) and kept £8 for myself, which at least covered my travel expenses! Not a bad experience. I treated it as a kind of voluntary work! :p

Finally flatmate has come back home. She said she had found a new flat in London and would be moving out on 17th July! Don't know if it was good or bad news, because I had to plan again - need to tell the new flatmate a revised moving in date, sort out bills issue asap. I had an argument with my flatmate about her revised moving out date and it seems we both were trying to defend ourselves, which made me wonder if it was my fault that led to a misunderstanding between her and me. :( And I've also learnt that people tend to make assumptions about each other. *sigh* Why did such thing happen when I'm still struggling with my ACCA exam?

*****

Lunch: cheese bun...

Was thinking of selling these origami rabbit in the caring home... 

my 'stall' at the caring home for Chinese calligraphy!

One of other stalls

These words were written when I was bored at the stall... 

Teatime: ate the blueberry muffin bought from Morrisons yesterday

Actually it tasted ok. Texture & blueberry were good too!

But I still miss Waitrose's blueberry muffins... 

Dinner: simple but tasty & healthy! 

omelette with mushroom & ham!

Forget about ex-employer & ACCA - Enjoyed food & shopping!

Felt a bit better after last night's sleep. Woke up around 6 a.m. to go to toilet (maybe I should get rid of my habit of drinking water before going to bed!). The sleep was ok (quiet environment without flatmate! :p), though I had strange dreams again - dreamt of my ex-employer (those senior management people) and a refurbished office building. How come I still dreamt of them!? *Sigh* Today I heard about the way they handled things - every time when I hear how 'unprofessional' they are or when I don't agree with what they're doing, I feel a bit 'mo loi' (無奈); it's like you think things could have been done or dealt with in a better way...

Still had headache from time to time. Not sure if it's got anything to do with my nose or stress or anything.

Motivation to revise for ACCA exam was still low. Did a bit of revision before going to gym in the afternoon. I only did 20 minutes, which was long enough for me to sweat. The highlight of the day was having dinner at Morrisons! Yeah! The dinner was better than last time. We had a big fish & chips and the cheese & bacon omelette was yummy, and we really felt full this time. Also, we could buy two sweet pasties for 49p! In total we paid £8.49 for two evening meals plus two drinks! A very economical meal! :)

Morrisons has become my recent favourite supermarket and how could I miss this chance to do shopping tonight? Not many bargains when we started shopping. We could only get some 8 buns for 9p. The roast chicken was sold for £2.99, not cheap enough and also I'm still tired of having a whole roast chicken for a week's meals! I bought some lasagne as I wanted to make home-made lasagne! :)

We went to our elderly pak pak's house to give him back his laptop. We managed to help him get access to 'My TV' on tvb.com! Hopefully there'll be no more problem...

*****

Lunch: egg fried rice 

Nothing new. Again, just wanted to finish off all the food in the fridge.. 

Dinner: economical meals at Morrisons! 

Dinner: cappucinno 

Dinner: dessert first... 

Dinner: cheese & bacon omelette

It was melting... 

oh, cheesy... 

Dinner: see how big the fish was!

Petrol seemed to be cheaper at Morrisons as well!