I never win anything, until now...

Do you find yourself being EXTRA motivated in completing surveys and questionnaires when the reward for the prize draw is attractive and lucrative?! That's what I did...

Three weeks ago, a survey was launched at my workplace and I, along with 600 other people took part in the survey, in the hope of becoming the lucky winner in the random prize draw. I have done that many times and since very young, I have not had much luck in lucky draws so I did not harbour any hope at all.

So I got back into the office this week after my two-week holiday and have long forgotten about the questionnaire and the prize until I got an email yesterday.

Apparently, I have been randomly selected (with a randomiser software) as the winner for the prize!!! How about that?! Of course I was beyond ecstatic and my exact response -- "You are joking !!!!!!!!!! You're not pulling my leg, are you?!!!"

So the bearer of the prize came by yesterday and dropped this off for me.

 Yup, that's my name. That's for me !

So I opened it and revealed this...

Can you guess what it is at this stage? Is it a book? Is it a pencil case? Okay, okay, let's carry on then...

The all-too-familiar symbol?! Surely you can guess by now? No? Okay another picture to show you...

Yup. You guessed right.

It is a brand-spanking new 8GB Ipod Touch by Apple.

The trouble with this is, I already own an Ipod Nano which Steve got me on X'mas a few years back and I am absolutely happy with it even until today. As for the WiFi capability and being able to surf the net and check my emails yada yada yada, I've got my BlackBerry to do all that. So technically, technically speaking, I have no need for this Ipod Touch. Even when I got the MacBook last year, it came with an almost-free Ipod Touch (cost me £20) and I sold it for the same reason, I didn't think I need one. Today, another Ipod Touch has yet again managed to appear in my possession and I am again left with the decision of what I would do with it. I was admiring it last night and Steve said ,'You are tempted to keep it, aren't you?'. Well, yes, I am tempted to keep it but I know I'll grow tired of it after a day or two, after the initial excitment has died down. So, so... I think I shall sell it and put the money towards getting a sewing machine!! What do you think?! I think it is a brilliant idea !!!!

On why I nearly threw my new laptop out the window!!!

I cannot believe that it's been 5 days since I got my new laptop and I still have not had the chance to properly 'play' with it or use it yet...

Here's how the story goes...

Long, long time ago, when you buy a new pc/laptop/notebook/netbook, you will find a vacuum-sealed pack of documents, instruction booklet, guide and most importantly, a Windows back up disk, or disc whatever you want to call it.

That time is long gone.

These days, user guidebook - install online.

Instruction - go to www.blablabla.com

Windows back up disk -- buy either 2 DVD or 14 CD's and make them yourself !!!

Which I did. Gave the other half very specific instruction on Thursday to get me blank DVD and despite getting back from work at 10.15pm and tired like a dog, I took a quick shower and sat the notebook on me lap and got cracking.

The reason I had to do this before anything else is quite obvious. A factory default back up disk means you don't play with it and mess up the settings and everything... a factory default back up disk means you do it right from the start, so that in case you need to reformat your system, you get it back to how you originally found it.

So I got started and found it quite easy because there was already a pre-installed software for the job and all one has to do is follow instruction. But when it came to burning onto the DVD, I encountered problems. Since there are so many versions of DVD out there, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, 16x, 8x, 6x, 4x, da da da, I put it down to the other half having bought the wrong DVD so I went to bed feeling a little annoyed that I had to wait another whole day before I get to touch my new laptop again.

The next day, I found another type of DVD (which is supposedly compatible) and gave it another go. Still it didn't work. By that time, I was annoyed, frustrated and a bit angry.

So another bright idea was to look online to see if there have been similar problems in any online forum that I could find the solutions to. Of course did I not proudly brag that this laptop is the LATEST top of the range model, which meant that you won't find much information about it??!! Dang. By this time, profanity was the only thing that was coming out of my mouth.

I had no choice but to try and use 14 CD's in total to create my back up discs (it would have been only 2 DVD's had it worked).. So I got the first glimmer of hope when it finally managed to write onto the CD's. But by the 4th disc, the same problem ocurred and each time it would start writing on a brand new CD-R and stop halfway through and not complete due to verification problems. So I had to keep feeding it new CD's in the hope that the next one will be completed !!! And the whole process of trying to burn 14 discs took an annoying 3 hours, and I was reaching disc 12, when I ran out of blank CD's to feed this, annoying, obnoxious, arrogant and greedy metallic monstar !!!!! So I was hoping that some of the rejected CD's might work so I kept popping them back and they kept being rejected. So I was at my wit's end and I tried the DVD's as well to no avail and in the end, the only thing I didn't do was to throw that damn thing out of the window. So, I had to end the job and live with the fact that the next time I start that back up process again, I will have to start from disc 1 (a painful experience I found out after I had finished burning disc 1 and 2 and had to terminate the process to go to work and come back to find that I had to start the whole thing again)

When I went to bed, I was beyond frustrated and threatened to throw the thing out the window. So Steve said that we'll take it back and get it changed for a new one. And I thought, as if anyone would allow you to take back a laptop so easily? But I had his assurance that he will deal with it *perhaps just to shut me up so that he can get some sleep?*

To make it short, all in all, I have ruined 31 CD's and achieved nothing !! Not to mention I am stuck with 10 blank DVD's that I can't take back or use.

I had to abandon the post half way through and as I am writing this paragraph now, it is 6 hours since I started this post and the latest update on the laptop issue -- we are getting a replacement on Tuesday (hoooray! Trust Steve to deal with customer service) but Tuesday is sooooo far away and am currently blogging on me ol' faithful (my old laptop).... I was a bit terrified that it won't start because it was in a strop with me for replacing it. But thank god, it didn't let me down and it started fine.

Anyways, these pictures show a happier times when I first opened the laptop!!

A foody weekend

So I came back from Edinburgh this morning on a 7.20am flight and until now am still thinking of the nice and wonderful array of food I had over the weekend.

After the terrible 'Tigerlily' experience in that posh restaurant on Friday night, we decided the following night we would cook something ourselves and have a nice evening in. Yours truly, is quite an invalid at the moment, suffering from a foot condition called 'Plantar Fasciitis.' Basically, it's tissue damage to the right heel and I can't walk very fast or very far and have to take it easy (hence, the new shoes and all that). So we did lots of walking on Friday, and also on the Saturday day time, so by the time we made our way back to the flat on Saturday evening from Princess Street, I was limping (ding happily called me 'disabled'). My foot was aching and throbbing, but the best thing about it was that because of that, I didn't have to get involved with dinner preparation. In fact, I was being served quite well, water being brought to me, food being brought to me on demand and I was beginning to think I should perhaps move to Edinburgh permanently, haha !! So when dinner of wonton noodles with wonton, chinese mushroom and pak choi was served to me, I couldn't help but take a picture of it because it was absolutely delicious and scrumptious !!


This was then followed by more greengages, and nectarines and cherries.

Oh I forgot to mention, we went for sushi on Saturday afternoon, and I had eel with rice for the first time and it was absolutely delish. And ding ordered Dark Dragon Roll, also with eel and they weren't bad either. Got picture to show you.


The green bit on top is avocado with a dollop of mayo and teeny tiny roe. Sushi is actually quite filling. Ding and I shared a portion of eel and rice, and also a portion of this dark dragon roll, which is about 4 pieces each and we were stuffed.

It was a shame that although I was there for the beginning of the famous Fringe Festival of Edinburgh, I didn't get to see any parade or shows. To be fair, we did browse through the catalogue and almost went to see a dance show but we didn't in the end because 1.my foot was killing me 2.it was raining, the perfect excuse to stay indoors and watch movies, back to back.

Anyhooo, overall it was a fantastic weekend and not only did I get to catch up with my mate ding, I made new friends as well that I hope to see again quite soon.

Oh yeah, I've got a picture of me blogging from my friend's new netbook as well, what a biatch (Fely that goes to you too, haha).


Can you see the touchpad? There's an up-down arrow on the touchpad that allows you to scroll up and down the screen easily and it's a really, really handy feature on a touchpad.

Hmmmmmmm...... (do I really need one though?)