NationStates Jolt Archive

Sorry if anyone's had a shite week this week, but I've had a really neat one where lots of great things have happened and I feel good for the first time in a long while.


I challenge anyone to bring me down!


(And going on about the sick and the dying round the World won't work, as I have sociopathic tendancies :) )

I wont try to bring you down....but I will say yay for you having a great week :)

Sorry if anyone's had a shite week this week, but I've had a really neat one where lots of great things have happened and I feel good for the first time in a long while.


I challenge anyone to bring me down!


(And going on about the sick and the dying round the World won't work, as I have sociopathic tendancies :) )
Turn on the TV tonight. (You are British, aren't you?)

Nope, not British. I don't even watch TV much, cause it's all in Cantonese.
And even the NZ cricketers aren't doing too badly - another bonus!

Ah, then you'll miss the BBC's annual charity fest. I guess I can't bring you down then. :mad:

I wont try to bring you down....but I will say yay for you having a great week :)
Thank you! Have a fluffle :fluffle:

Thank you! Have a fluffle :fluffle:


wooo! I needed a fluffle today! Thank you! :fluffle:

What the Hell - I'm in such a good mood:
fluffles for everybody!!
:fluffle: :fluffle: :fluffle: :fluffle: :fluffle: :fluffle: :fluffle: :fluffle: :fluffle:

Congratulations on a great week. But let me spin you a tale of woe that would melt the heart of the cruellest.

I've had the most atrocious fortnight ever. These two weeks have been utter crap.

First off - monday last week. While checking through my papers, I discover that an essay I was not aware of was in fact due in for January the 17th. It was an unassessed essay, but without it I cannot attend the exam, therefore not passing the module, which combined, fails me the course. I have yet to get any of my tutors to respond to my desperate pleas for help.

And so, not willing to simply give up, I decided to knuckle down and get to some hard work. I had to complete two full length essays, one assessed and one unassessed, in one week. This was hell. Every night I was in the library till eight in the morning till ten at night and got home at 11pm. I worked my ass off and got the two essays in skimming the deadline.

The weekend I just slept. I was so bombed I couldn't even rouse myself to do more work. Then, this week, I've got yet another essay - but it turns out I've caught the flu. My throat is, right now, agony - I'm oozing from every orifice in my head. But I'm still in the library and fighting to get this essay done, with every source that would be relevant booked out for the week and completely unavailable. Tomorrow, I've got to meet with my study group and work all day to get the work integrated.

Guess what. Tomorrow is my birthday. I will be twenty, but there will be no cake, no candles, all my friends are miles away at uni and nobody will remember anyway. So, all in all, I have had the world's shitest week.

Well done - this week you are on the correct end of the karmic seesaw.

Aww. Shame.

Congratulations on a great week. But let me spin you a tale of woe that would melt the heart of the cruellest.

I've had the most atrocious fortnight ever. These two weeks have been utter crap.

First off - monday last week. While checking through my papers, I discover that an essay I was not aware of was in fact due in for January the 17th. It was an unassessed essay, but without it I cannot attend the exam, therefore not passing the module, which combined, fails me the course. I have yet to get any of my tutors to respond to my desperate pleas for help.

And so, not willing to simply give up, I decided to knuckle down and get to some hard work. I had to complete two full length essays, one assessed and one unassessed, in one week. This was hell. Every night I was in the library till eight in the morning till ten at night and got home at 11pm. I worked my ass off and got the two essays in skimming the deadline.

The weekend I just slept. I was so bombed I couldn't even rouse myself to do more work. Then, this week, I've got yet another essay - but it turns out I've caught the flu. My throat is, right now, agony - I'm oozing from every orifice in my head. But I'm still in the library and fighting to get this essay done, with every source that would be relevant booked out for the week and completely unavailable. Tomorrow, I've got to meet with my study group and work all day to get the work integrated.

Guess what. Tomorrow is my birthday. I will be twenty, but there will be no cake, no candles, all my friends are miles away at uni and nobody will remember anyway. So, all in all, I have had the world's shitest week.

Well done - this week you are on the correct end of the karmic seesaw.
You poor guy(?) And I thought my week was bad.

Well, your week does sound pretty shitty.
But it still doesn't bring me down.
Here's why:
In January I was made redundant for a completely bogus reason - he couldn't fire me because I'd done nothing wrong, so he gave me two months notice instead. He said he was closing a branch and so the wasn't enough hours for me. Two days later he's advertising in the paper for more teachers. And no, the other branch didn't close.

My g/f took off back to NZ for two weeks holiday the same day - partly because she wanted time apart to consider our relationship.

One of the few friends I've made since I come here, and certainly the best one I got, left to go back to England. She worked at the same place as me and quit cause the manager's an arsehole. He first told her that he couldn't pay her until the end of the month, but after a huge argument, finally gave her a check - but postdated it until the day after she was flying out. So she couldn't cash it, and he refused to write out another one - said it would cost him $60HK (which is about $8US). To put it perspective, he owed her $16300HK. So she flew out without her last check.
Which meant I also could probably expect the same.

Sure enough, last month everyone else got paid on the 2nd, except me. I asked why and was first told it would be the third, then the night of the third, then that the accountant had quit. The next day I asked the accountant (who obviously hadn't quit) about it and she said he had told her not to pay until the 7th. His reply to this was that legally he didn't have to pay until then. In otherwords it was just him being petty and controlling.

To add to this, he refused to pay for a sick day I took, so I lost over $1000. It was the day I was to have been given my notice and so in his mind that's when my redundancy notice began, even though I wasn't officially told until the day after (I had to come in on my day off just to be told this) and in the contract it says sick leave won't be paid out during the redundancy period.
Then he informed me in February that he won't pay out my annual leave owing (7 days, so $8000HK aprox), because it's company policy not to. I have to take it before I leave, but I also have to give 4 weeks notice before hand. He didn't tell me this until it was less than 4 weeks before I finished work, and so he wouldn't accept me taking it before I leave.
Did I mention that he's a petty arsehole?

Add to this the 'reference' letter he gave me. Knowing how petty he is, I asked simply for a letter detailing how long I worked there, how many hours teaching I'd done each month and what levels I'd taught. I even wrote it out for him.
But he refused to sign it, saying it wasn't appropriate. Instead he gave me one that said I had basically been fired because the students disliked me (actual words: 'Let go due to insufficient student demand for his teaching skills' - btw I recieved more Xmas cards and presents than all the other teachers combined. He got one card) and that he 'would be very happy to give a extremely valuable phone reference as to this person's teaching ability and general work habits'.
And no, he refused to explain what he meant and why he had changed it. When I confronted him over it, he said he could write what he liked and he didn't have to tell me anything. When I said that privacy laws demanded he do so, he told me he didn't care, he wasn't going to tell me anyway.

Incidently, he has such a bad reputation the website 'Dave's ESL cafe' had a page dedicated to complaints from ex-employees about him. Like how he made redundant a 6 month-pregnant woman just so he wouldn't have to pay maternal leave and once threatened his employees with dismissal unless they taught in a classroom when the toiler had overflowed - he kindly put newspaper down. One teacher came down with SARS and was in hospital for a month. When she got out, he had only paid her 1/2 salary and gave her an official written warning for having not done the curriculum development work she was meant to have done that month.
Anyway, he DID have a page dedicated to him on Dave's, but Dave had to remove it because he threatened to sue Dave over it - and tell the FBI about it. What the hell the FBI has to do with, at worst, a Libel case I have no idea.
His staff turnover would be in excess of 100%. I was there 6 months and there's only 2 teachers and 1 secretary out of 12 teachers/6 secretaries still there that were there when I started.

Then he found a reason to give me an official warning - a secretary told me a class was cancelled and it wasn't so I didn't turn up for it. No real fault on her part, as her English is extremely low so she was probably confused. But a godsend for him, because in his mind it was all my fault and the official warning meant he didn't have to pay me my end-of-contract bonus ($11 000HK, so about $1500US). The warning also said I'd been habitually neglectful of my duties, and when I asked him for examples he said there were many but he didn't have to tell me them. But he would feel obligiated to inform any potential future employers about this warning.

So I was forced to try to find a job knowing full well that he would go out of his way to put the boot in if and when phoned about me. But I could hardly not put it down as work experience, because then there's a suspicious long gap in my employment history and also it would help me get a position showing I had teaching experience in HK. On the other hand I could hardly launch into a long diatribe about what a wanker he is when interviewed - always looks bad when you slag off your last boss, regardless of whether they deserve it or not.

SO, lots of applying for jobs and a few interviews but no success. Also my hours started getting really shitty at work. I was told mid-January that I had to do extra curriculum development work because there wasn't enough teaching hours for me - even though 1 full-time teacher and 2 p/t teachers had left during that time and he was reduced to getting the parents of the sub-manager (neither of them with any teaching qualifications) in to cover classes. My hours for the month were 108 teaching hours - which meant having to write up 44 lessons. If my hours were 106.5, my contract stated I would only have to do 30 lessons (go figure as to why). When I asked him about this, he refused to talk to me, but sent me a curt email later saying that I had signed the contract so had agreed to the contents.
So I had to make up 44 lessons in less than 2 weeks, as well as teach. I made sure I did them all because I just knew he would be there on Feb 1st with another official warning letter and most likely just fire me on the spot for not fulfilling my contracty.
But because he was so short-staffed he was forced to give me extra classes. I constantly pestered him about how many lessons I now had to make up, but recieved no reply. Until 4.58pm on January 31st. When I got a txt msg from him saying that I had done enough teaching hours that month and so didn't need to do any extra curriculum work. petty, petty, oh so petty.

Yep, so for the last month I've been feeling fairly stressed out and miserable. Love life crap. Work life crap. Prospects crap. Thinking that maybe I might be forced to head back to NZ with my tail between my legs and admit defeat. To make it worse I couldn't tell my parents, as my brother had lost his job and Da's diabetes had gotten worse, and he had a minor stroke in January and fell over in the garden. He was there for over an hour before my brother had come round and found him. He can't get up by himself that well cause he's got a broken neck that partially paralysed him down one side. So I thought the last thing Mum needs right now is even more worries from me. So I was pretty much had to go through all this crap by myself.

However in the last couple of weeks, things started looking up. I was offered a position in another private learning center - though not starting until April, so I had 3 weeks off with no pay. Though it had in the contract I could be dismissed without notice in the first two months, which didn't make me feel very comfortable. But the owner/manager is a far nicer guy than my previous boss - but then how could he not be? So a nice start to March.

However this week has been awesome!
I got a cat on Saturday, from a colleague of my g/f. I love cats. I haven't had one for 4 years now since my last ran away when I moved, then I was first flatting with my brother who had two Ridgeback/Alasatian x (so a cat would have been a very bad idea) and finally looking after one of them when my brother moved down South.
After the first few days of hiding under my bed she came out on Tuesday night, sat on my shoulder and started pawing at my face. I started having a dream I was in a boxing match and was being repeatedly punched in the face cause I couldn't raise my hands high enough.

On Sunday I won the Hong Kong Open Indoor Rowing Champs, and $1000 along with it. I also had lots of ppl invite me to join their team for the up-coming season which was nice to feel wanted.

I had sex 3 days running this week - would have been every day but the g/f had to fly out to London yesterday. Damn it all. (In case you're very slow, this means that the relationship's back to being good again)
But before she left she gave me a form to fill in that means I can now get ultra-ultra cheap airfares - like 10% of their full price. So a Business class ticket return to NZ will cost me $500US, Economy is $100US.

Then the EMB (the HK Govt Education Dept) arranged an interview at a school for me yesterday. I felt I had blown it, so bought a load of chocolate to commiserate. However when I got home, there was an email from them offering me a 2 year contract, at $10000 more a month than I was getting. I'll be getting approx $4000US p/month after tax, with a 15% gratuity at the end of it. Just teaching Monday to Friday, Weekends off. 8 weeks holiday in Summer. Starts after Easter, which means I can go back to NZ over Easter to visit the folks and see how they are and not worry about the cost.

So a really big:
WOO HOO!!!

And finally tonight I decided to get back into strength training again, after a 3 month lay off (I was training for the rowing comp) and deadlifted 210kgs without a belt. Not my best (that's 240kg) but considering I haven't been training, I haven't done deadlifts for over 3 months, I'm not on the protein powder, creatine or HMB, I didn't have my weight belt on and I have a cold, pretty damn good.


So this is why I feel so damn good. All that shit seems to be behind me. Finally.
What the hell, let's have another:
WOO HOO!!!

This must win some sort of award for longest post this week!

Sorry if anyone's had a shite week this week, but I've had a really neat one where lots of great things have happened and I feel good for the first time in a long while.


I challenge anyone to bring me down!


(And going on about the sick and the dying round the World won't work, as I have sociopathic tendancies :) )

Ok, Adult swim isn't on tonight.

Kudos. That is one hell of a good week, and very well deserved by the look of it.

Yeah - fair dos, the position on the karmic seesaw was extremely well deserved.

Thank you. I think so too. I find it odd how luck bunches together. I never seem to get a little bit of bad luck followed by some good luck. It's nearly always completely rotten, makes you feel all is lost, no point in carrying on, desolation, shit luck where I'm lucky if there's one thing I can think of that's going good. Followed a few weeks later by the most outstanding, top of the World, everything's perfect, wonderful luck imaginable.
Strange strange World.
Times like this make me almost believe in Karma, Kismit, Destiny. All that stuff.

DH....is that really a pic of your chest over in Occid's contest thread?????? :eek:

I've had maybe the worst weak so far this year .. maybe in my lifetime.

Joy.

DH....is that really a pic of your chest over in Occid's contest thread?????? :eek:
If you mean this one:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y38/smoog/?action=view&current=me1.jpg

Then yes.
Sorry it's so blurry, but the webcam's crappy and I can't actually fit myself in. ;)
It's not as big as it used to be, because I haven't been doing any strength training for a few months. But that's going to change now the rowing comp's over! When I get a digicam maybe I'll post a better pic.

If you mean this one:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y38/smoog/?action=view&current=me1.jpg

Then yes.
Sorry it's so blurry, but the webcam's crappy and I can't actually fit myself in. ;)
It's not as big as it used to be, because I haven't been doing any strength training for a few months. But that's going to change now the rowing comp's over! When I get a digicam maybe I'll post a better pic.


holy bench presses batman! whoa...

Sorry if anyone's had a shite week this week, but I've had a really neat one where lots of great things have happened and I feel good for the first time in a long while.


I challenge anyone to bring me down!


(And going on about the sick and the dying round the World won't work, as I have sociopathic tendancies :) )
HEY!i have those same tendencies. well, your week would be ruined IF YOU WOKE UP and that nice chest of yours was covered in hamster fur................
or what if the hamster died?? HMMM??

Awww...now I'm getting embarrassed! <blushes>
but thank you! :)

Awww...now I'm getting embarrassed! <blushes>
but thank you! :)
spoken like a true sociopath.heh.

Awww...now I'm getting embarrassed! <blushes>
but thank you! :)


*donates to the DH digicam fund *

sigh......

Thank you. I think so too. I find it odd how luck bunches together. I never seem to get a little bit of bad luck followed by some good luck. It's nearly always completely rotten, makes you feel all is lost, no point in carrying on, desolation, shit luck where I'm lucky if there's one thing I can think of that's going good. Followed a few weeks later by the most outstanding, top of the World, everything's perfect, wonderful luck imaginable.
Strange strange World.
Times like this make me almost believe in Karma, Kismit, Destiny. All that stuff.
ahem *coughs* SOMEBODY got laid this week.



;)

HEY!i have those same tendencies. well, your week would be ruined IF YOU WOKE UP and that nice chest of yours was covered in hamster fur................
or what if the hamster died?? HMMM??
Actually I don't own any Hamsters, just two guinea pigs and a cat. And it wouldn't bother me if the pigs died, as they're smelly dumb creatures anyway. My g/f likes them which is why we have them. But as she's away a lot of the time, it's muggins here that has to clean their frigging cage out ever few days!
So to answer your question - that would make me even happier if the pigs died!

Hurrah for DH! :fluffle:

I personally have spent much of this week being depressed for no apparent reason. What makes that most awkward is coz when peeps ask what the matter is i actually don't know, but they think i'm just hiding it or something.

I've cheered up a bit now tho. I blame my random depression on girl trouble, as usual. ;)

ahem *coughs* SOMEBODY got laid this week.



;)
Didn't you read my extremely long-winded post?
Go right to the bottom, just above the first big WOO HOO! ;)

*donates to the DH digicam fund *

sigh......
*volunteers to just go to his house and take the pictures for herself*

*arriving, conviently, when DH is showering, and says "come on in!" not realized that i take things literally*

Sorry if anyone's had a shite week this week, but I've had a really neat one where lots of great things have happened and I feel good for the first time in a long while.


I challenge anyone to bring me down!


(And going on about the sick and the dying round the World won't work, as I have sociopathic tendancies :) )


Cool, I'm happy for ya :p

Sorry if anyone's had a shite week this week, but I've had a really neat one where lots of great things have happened and I feel good for the first time in a long while.


I challenge anyone to bring me down!


(And going on about the sick and the dying round the World won't work, as I have sociopathic tendancies :) )
We cant have that.
Evidence that your in the Daryl Tuffey sex video.
*THE MILKSHAKE*

This is just starting to get nteresting but I really need to go to bed. It's 3am here and I have to get up early today cause I'm teaching 7 classes.
So unfortunately I have to bid you all goodnight.
Here, have a fluffle for luck:
:fluffle:

Didn't you read my extremely long-winded post?
Go right to the bottom, just above the first big WOO HOO! ;)
i read it silly!! i was kidding. ;)

We cant have that.
Evidence that your in the Daryl Tuffey sex video.
*THE MILKSHAKE*
Having been away from NZ for several months, I have no idea what you're talking about, but please tell me more. Sounds fascinating. Is this why Tuffey doesn't bowl for NZ anymore?

My latest form of self-abuse with my friends is sword fighting. Wooden swords. Daitos and cane practice swords.

So this week has been welt week! :) :(

Ok, Adult swim isn't on tonight.
Was 8 hrs ago so PFFFT

Having been away from NZ for several months, I have no idea what you're talking about, but please tell me more. Sounds fascinating. Is this why Tuffey doesn't bowl for NZ anymore?
Well after coming back from his knee injury he was put into the ODI team agains 'Straya' and his line and length werent tight on the 3rd OD he got some tips and advice from Simon Doull( :confused: ) and went for 14 on the first over(including something like 3 wides 2 no balls and being slapped around a bit).

He was dropped for the rest of the OD'er's(2 Games) and didnt make the Test team.

Then last Monday revalations of a Sex video involving a 19 year old Fan(Greatest Fan :) )from CH CH a milkshake and 2 British backpackers(who filmed it) was inspected(not right wording).

The 2 Brits have gone home but had been showing the Vid around at nightclubs and Pubs (including said fans boyfriends local).

So hes potentially to be charged with bringing the game into disrepute for Devious acts.

I havent seen the vid but copies are out there i just want to know what the milkshakes for. :confused:

My hours for the month were 108 teaching hours - which meant having to write up 44 lessons. If my hours were 106.5, my contract stated I would only have to do 30 lessons (go figure as to why). When I asked him about this, he refused to talk to me, but sent me a curt email later saying that I had signed the contract so had agreed to the contents.
So I had to make up 44 lessons in less than 2 weeks, as well as teach. I made sure I did them all because I just knew he would be there on Feb 1st with another official warning letter and most likely just fire me on the spot for not fulfilling my contracty.
ISnt the boss breaking contract???

ISnt the boss breaking contract???
He's doing so many things that he if not outright illegal, then certainly dodgy. Unfortunately, he also has a lot of power, insomuch as I needed sponsorship for my work VISA, and if he was to fire me my work VISA is instantly voided and I can't work. Even if it's for a completely bogus reason - I would have to take him to court (where it's heavily stacked in the employer's favour here) and show unfair dismissal. This would take months and I wouldn't be allowed to work during that time.
Which of course he knows full well.
So he treats his employees like shit, because he can get away with it.
Most people leave rather than go through any hassle like that.

MORE GOOD NEWS:
I came home today and he had posted me a cheque for my last month's salary - $25000! (That's HK, so around $3200US). Yay! Now I can pay off my VISA and be bank-debt-free (I still owe on my Student Loan) for the first time in 6 years.

I can also now threaten to take my ex-employee to court over some of the things he's done to me - especially regarding the reference letter and my holidays. I talked to a lawyer and he is in breech of some HK laws there. I wasn't going to say anything until I got my last pay, cause I knew he would have definitely found some excuse not to pay me.
Actually I much rather not take him to employment court - I mainly want (and need) a letter saying how many hours teaching I've done there, so my new job can work out my salary properly. But then again, I know it'd annoy the hell out of him and would cost him a lot to have to take time of work and get his lawyer in etc etc. That alone makes it worth it. :)

This has been such a great week.

Well, my week hasn't been great. Deadlines. Much Work. Getting back bad mock exam results. I was very much looking forward to Friday night, though, as it's pub night and it's the only real chance i get to see all my friends during the week, and i we were all going back to one of the girls' houses. In the event, one of my friends got too drunk and emotional, kicking in the gate to the beer garden so it was hanging off it's hinges. He also threw a beer-glass across the patio. This series of events meant we left the pub somewhat earlier than planned, and I'm not sure if we've been banned or not, or just the guy who kicked the gate in. While walking back to the girl's house, we were harrassed by three groups of chavs; mainly name-calling at first, then one group of about thirty passed, and you could tell they were looking for a fight, the girls in our group got pushed and i and my friend who i was comforting ( the same one who kicked the gate in) got punched a number of times. They left him and I when he was unconcious, leavign a large pool of blood on someone's doorstep, and when i was rather better off simply spilling a large amount of blood from my mouth. The evening was farily uneventful from that point on.

Everyone was ok in the end, but not a great end to my week.

Well, my week hasn't been great. Deadlines. Much Work. Getting back bad mock exam results. I was very much looking forward to Friday night, though, as it's pub night and it's the only real chance i get to see all my friends during the week, and i we were all going back to one of the girls' houses. In the event, one of my friends got too drunk and emotional, kicking in the gate to the beer garden so it was hanging off it's hinges. He also threw a beer-glass across the patio. This series of events meant we left the pub somewhat earlier than planned, and I'm not sure if we've been banned or not, or just the guy who kicked the gate in. While walking back to the girl's house, we were harrassed by three groups of chavs; mainly name-calling at first, then one group of about thirty passed, and you could tell they were looking for a fight, the girls in our group got pushed and i and my friend who i was comforting ( the same one who kicked the gate in) got punched a number of times. They left him and I when he was unconcious, leavign a large pool of blood on someone's doorstep, and when i was rather better off simply spilling a large amount of blood from my mouth. The evening was farily uneventful from that point on.

Everyone was ok in the end, but not a great end to my week.
Fuck. That's a real Essex night out for you; one of the reasons I don't live there any more. My sympathies.

Fuck. That's a real Essex night out for you; one of the reasons I don't live there any more. My sympathies.
It was extremely Essex...