Just wanna a dinner table.... 只是想要一張餐桌..

I have looked for a dinner table since last year. Finally I found one I fancy very much last month but the shop called to tell me that they made a mistake by providing a wrong model number to the factory and the truth is that they didnt have that table anymore.

OK. I was disappointed for sure but nothing I can do. So just keep searching for it then.

Luckily, I found another shop having the same table last week and ordered it as well. The orignal plan is that they will dilivery the table tomorrow morning. Cant wait to see it in real!!!!

This morning I got a call form the shop owner. Hmm what gonna happen this time? He told me that the factory was on fire last night and the table I want was burned completely. But they saved some other similar tables and would like to sale one of them to me even they are more expensive for compensating my loss.

Hmmmmmm... If it's real, the owner is very good at controlling his mood after such bad business situation happened cause he sounded very cool on the phone, even joked about it a bit. If not, then its very interesting way to run the business i guess.

Anyway, why is it so hard to get a dinner table??

開始物色餐桌已經有一段時間了，總算在上個月找到喜歡的款式，原本還暗自慶幸不至於像餐燈花了我一年的時間，不過，就在下訂完要確定送貨時間時，店家打電話給我說，他們之前跟工廠確認庫存時講錯型號，我要的那張桌子事實上已經沒貨了。

好吧，只能摸摸鼻子繼續找呀。很幸運，在上週又給我找到另一個店家有出售相同款式的桌子。這次連送貨時間都喬好了，會在明天早上送到。本來還很期待總算要看到新餐桌了，結果今天早上又接到店家的電話...對方表示昨晚一場大火，燒掉我要的那張桌子，不過很幸運地(對誰?)，他們救了幾張款式相似的桌子，雖然比較貴，但是願意以同價格賣我以補償我的損失。

這次連火災都搞出來了......

是說，如果是真的，那對方真的很鎮定，發生這種事還可以很冷靜地講電話，心情感覺還不錯。如果是假的，只能說這種生意手法，也太新鮮了，還詛咒自己耶?!

只是要張餐桌，怎麼也這麼難?!

八卦的魔力

(某日，因母公司稽核對琳達十分不滿，驚動到琳達主管出面調停......)


J同事:　.....你自己知道你在荷蘭幹了什麼事
琳 達:　我確實不知道你指哪件事
你的行為不當已經嚴重影響荷蘭同事跟我的合作，你最好自己想想做了啥事
不行，我真的想不出來，你可以直接講嗎?
哼，我聽說妳在荷蘭說會計經理是屎
啊..聽說?
對，A先生(荷蘭country manager)告訴我的。
嗯....我不回答八卦問題。
(義正嚴詞)那才不是八卦咧!
你光聽A先生說就傳話，這不是八卦嗎?!!!
貴為country manager，A先生當然不會講假話。
............... (被對方的奴性驚嚇到無語)
琳達主管:那.......?
我是有跟會計經理吵架，也有提到屎字，不過，不是A跟J講的情形。而且，那是發生在開放隔間，聽到的人多的很。至於細節，老闆你想知道我可以再告訴你，不過現在不會為了滿足J的八卦好奇心，就在這裡解釋。(註1)

而且，這件事也嚴重影響到我跟AL(會計經理)的互動
我去荷蘭前，就有人反應AL有"態度"問題，自己過去之後，也發現AL也確實有"態度"問題，這也是後來我們發生爭執的地方。看來你運氣很好，AL只跟你一個人配合耶!
ㄟ..其實也不是(低頭狀)....
琳達主管&琳達:..............　(被J同事的不知所云困擾到再次無語) 　(註2)


註1:

琳達認知的事實是--> 在苦等AL資料快2星期，詢問無果加上對方顯然不把我的好意放在眼裡後，決定當天不再傻等，上樓找AL要他給資料，果然AL如同往常般，給了許多藉口，就是不給資料。故琳達就說了J先生好奇到十分苦惱地步的那句話---噹噹噹噹~~~~~----->
停止給我那像屎一般的藉口，我現在就需要XXX資料。
(翻成中文還真是蠻有效果的 ^^)

註2:
後來荷蘭傳來的小道消息，因為當初我和AL的爭吵是在開放空間(旁邊其他同事都看到兼聽到)，可愛的J先生顯然也不是我想的這麼愛混，某些時刻，他也是會發揮追根究底的精神。

J同事:你說(打電話問荷蘭N小姐)，琳達是不是罵AL是屎
N小姐:沒有啦，琳達不是這樣講
沒關係，你不用擔心，跟我說實話
就沒的事呀
真是太不夠意思了，為何發生事情竟然不告訴我
就沒啥事..是要跟你說什麼..

我想...J先生....一定很討厭我 ^^

How To Be Alone / Tanya Davis

Quite interesting.  Somehow, a little bit sad though.


HOW TO BE ALONE by Tanya Davis


If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you've not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren't okay with it, then just wait. You'll find it's fine to be alone once you're embracing it.


We could start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library. Where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books. You're not supposed to talk much anyway so it's safe there.


There's also the gym. If you're shy you could hang out with yourself in mirrors, you could put headphones in (guitar stroke).


And there's public transportation, because we all gotta go places.


And there's prayer and meditation. No one will think less if you're hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.


Start simple. Things you may have previously (electric guitar plucking) based on your avoid being alone principals.


The lunch counter. Where you will be surrounded by chow-downers. Employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town and so they -- like you -- will be alone.


Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.


When you are comfortable with eat lunch and run, take yourself out for dinner. A restaurant with linen and silverware. You're no less intriguing a person when you're eating solo dessert to cleaning the whipped cream from the dish with your finger. In fact some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.


Go to the movies. Where it is dark and soothing. Alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.
And then, take yourself out dancing to a club where no one knows you. Stand on the outside of the floor till the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one's watching...because, they're probably not. And, if they are, assume it is with best of human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats is, after all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you're sweating, and beads of perspiration remind you of life's best things, down your back like a brook of blessings.


Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you.
Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, there're always statues to talk to and benches made for sitting give strangers a shared existence if only for a minute and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversations you get in by sitting alone on benches might've never happened had you not been there by yourself


Society is afraid of alonedom, like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements, like people must have problems if, after a while, nobody is dating them. but lonely is a freedom that breaths easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it.


You could stand, swathed by groups and mobs or hold hands with your partner, look both further and farther for the endless quest for company. But no one's in your head and by the time you translate your thoughts, some essence of them may be lost or perhaps it is just kept.


Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those sappy slogans from preschool over to high school's groaning were tokens for holding the lonely at bay. Cuz if you're happy in your head than solitude is blessed and alone is okay.


It's okay if no one believes like you. All experience is unique, no one has the same synapses, can't think like you, for this be releived, keeps things interesting lifes magic things in reach.


And it doesn't mean you're not connected, that communitie's not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it. take silence and respect it. if you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it. if your family doesn't get you, or religious sect is not meant for you, don't obsess about it.


you could be in an instant surrounded if you needed it
If your heart is bleeding make the best of it
There is heat in freezing, be a testament.

Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

It's a very cute video and the singer's voice......yea.. definitely my type! ^^
Just don't really catch what it means.
Maybe......wanna show an ordinary girl's ordinary life? No one would notice her in a crowd?? And even though, it's not sad at all with her little daydreams???
Hm...


(Lyric)
Sun been down for days
A pretty flower in a vase
A slipper by the fireplace
A cello lying in its case


Soon she�s down the stairs
Her morning elegance she wears
The sound of water makes her dream
Awoken by a cloud of steam
She pours a daydream in a cup
A spoon of sugar sweetens up


And she fights for her life
as she puts on her coat
And she fights for her life on the train
She looks at the rain
as it pours
And she fights for her life
as she goes in a store
with a thought she has caught
by a thread
she pays for the bread
and she goes
Nobody knows


Sun been down for days
A winter melody she plays
The thunder makes her contemplate
She hears a noise behind the gate
Perhaps a letter with a dove
Perhaps a stranger she could love


And she fights for her life
as she puts on her coat
And she fights for her life on the train
She looks at the rain
as it pours
And she fights for her life
as she goes in a store
with a thought she has caught
by a thread
she pays for the bread
and she goes
Nobody knows


And she fights for her life
as she puts on her coat
And she fights for her life on the train
She looks at the rain
as it pours
And she fights for her life
as she goes in a store
where the people are pleasantly
strange
and counting the
change
as she goes
Nobody knows

The Ringmaster’s Daughter 馬戲團的女兒/ Through the Galass, Darkly 西西莉亞的世界 by Jostein Gaarder

定了幾本Jostein Gaarder的書，先看西西莉亞的世界，並不覺得內容很吸引人，大概自己早已沒有赤子之心，對於看似有深度的童言童語，只覺得些許不耐煩。

馬戲團的女兒則是讓我很驚艷，寫作幫手這個主意，真是超有趣的，過程還帶了很多小故事，都是很新鮮的想法，總算是又'讓我拾回對該作者其他作品的興趣，只是為了結局看似有些太刻意地鋪陳，總覺得有些可惜啊，是說亂倫這個結局，好像怎樣處理都不對吧?! 

(琳達房事) 廚房

搬進來已經快一年了，總算等到肖想很久的餐燈。裝上去後，和想像中的樣子還是有點差距，但總是比天花板垂下兩條電線要美的多。燈光將檸檬綠的牆壁也襯托地很美，很難想像之前靠著廚房的光源竟也這樣過一年耶! ^^||

Black and blue 傷痕累累 / Anna Quindlen

只要是家庭暴力，就不會是太快樂的故事。但相較多數電視劇<善有善報，惡有惡報>的鄉愿，這個故事敘述主角(受害者)心境的細膩，真的很真實。尤其是自始自終，主角仍不斷地回頭質疑自己是否真的該逃跑，甚至是到了最後，仍是無法肯定的結尾，讓人真的很驚訝。

也許，暴力除了帶來恐懼，是不是也具有一種被強烈需求的吸引力? 

白目語錄.1

1.
董事長: 知道為什麼各個主管都怕我嗎??
琳    達: 呃..他們有怕你嗎?

2.
董事長:你知不知道平常看不見新加坡的警察，但是一違規就出現.....
琳   達:....我是稽核，不是警察。

3.
會議上，同事J不斷吐苦水，埋怨受查單位的不配合...

同事J:再這樣下去，我會變成這公司的第一跳...(請參閱富X康12跳的新聞)
琳 達:請事先請通知我，(期待狀)我想知道"調薪幅度"會是多少!!! (12跳後，富X康調薪33%)

4.
業務A因為誤解琳達的意思，又修改琳達的email原文另發他人，導致許多人來信質問，因此回信給業務A，請他不要再亂傳話了...業務A於是打電話來

業務A:(生氣大吼狀)琳達，請不要回這種email，有事請打電話給我就行。
琳 達:有email來，我就email去，尤其是CC給一堆人的email。
業務A:可是你明明就有說。
琳 達:我明明就沒說，請看Email原文.....
(一段你有，我沒有，你有，我沒有的來回後)
業務A:那好，我耳背行吧? 是我耳背行吧?!
琳 達:.......................
業務A:怎樣?! 我耳背行吧??
琳 達:.....行啊，我只是在想..那你打電話來幹嘛?! 

Paradise Syndrome?

原本以為<夜車>是平常的懸疑小說，很期待作者會將死亡背後的真相弄得多麼震撼人心，而結局確實是很出人意外，卻是完全不同的方向。



並不會想寫甚麼讀後感，只是想到前陣子與網友討論到的自殺話題，說真的，這個網友的經歷真的不是普通倒楣，就連篤信"性格決定命運"或"可憐之人必有可恨之處"的自己，都忍不住要迷信地想他是前輩子沒燒香嗎?  不過，也不是要討論這個網友不幸的人生，而是<夜車>提到了天堂症候群.... 也許很多人已經聽過這名詞，我在初初看到時，還覺得蠻有趣的，但看完了結局，就很想問...天堂症候群...該不會是"庸人自擾"的另一個同義詞? 又或者，天堂只是反諷? 外像的完美只能歸咎於高超的掩飾能力??
聽別人說過，自殺也許會解決自殺者的問題，但是卻帶給周遭人更多的問題。  聽完覺得還蠻沒道理的，畢竟自殺的人，要解決的不就是他的問題嗎? 如果想的到周遭人的傷心，又怎麼可能會去自殺呢?!
  
我不住在天堂，也不想自殺，但如果有很難面對的困難發生，我想，當街友應該是另一個選項......是不是很有背包客精神呀?! 嘿嘿。

My first bumgy jump in Queenstown, New Zealand

不知道為什麼，到了紐西蘭，膽子就大很多，不管是高空彈跳、高空跳傘、洞穴攀岩、水上噴射挺、泛舟、划獨木舟...啪啦啪啦，都很"努力"地一一參加了，中間有沒有覺得不好玩的? 當然有，不過一定不是高空彈跳這一項就是了。

Queenstown是個比基督城美很多的小鎮，(是說比基督城要美，應該不是很困難吧?! ^^||) 高空彈跳項目也多得很嚇人，因為還想參加水上噴射挺跟泛舟，所以買了組合餐，但後來發現噴射艇很無趣，應該是用來騙小孩的，加上這個canyon swing的價位實在不算便宜，如果還有第二跳，我應該會選其他的彈跳活動+泛舟。
到集合地點時，其實還沒啥感覺，畢竟當初報名時，有點像是矇著眼睛報的，到了集合地點看到影片播出，才開始覺得可怕。工作人員會當場量體重，並且不知何緣故地在手上畫圖。這個工作人員很過分地給我畫一個彈跳失敗掉下來的圖，還一堆濺血，還好我不信邪，不然應該會被罵吧!

現場人到齊後，開了輛9人小巴送我們上山，沿途風景還蠻美的，不過下車地點到彈跳位置還要再走14分鐘，一路已經開始有點腳軟，一到現場聽到前一梯次的人的尖叫聲，很有種當孬種也沒啥好可恥的感覺...............  反正，最後還是被害怕打敗，當工作人員問我要哪種彈跳姿勢時，直接就說"給我來最可怕的那種吧"，讓前一位跳的唯一男士十分拍謝(因為他選的是難度最低的前翻)，當場加點第二跳跟我一樣的，只是他後來應該很後悔，因為我們都不知道難度最高的是"倒栽蔥"，哈哈。 還好工作人員真的很搞笑，一直嚇我說，太好了，沒人知道你在這，所以你怎樣也不會有人知道。 被他們這樣一嚇，我反而膽子就大起來啦!

只是我原以為影片只會拍到我尖叫下去為止，哪知道拉上來那一段也有，還好沒有在下面講啥東西，但是沒有把握演一下，好像也很可惜說.......
PS. 下面的溪流就是待會我泛舟的溪流，好幾個激流，超刺激的!!

再回荷蘭

阿姆斯特丹雖然是自己多年前單身旅行的第一站，但印象中除了吵鬧的觀光客，就還是吵鬧的觀光客。倒是離開了阿姆斯特丹後的週遭景點，風景都很漂亮，印象也很好，所以這次被通知到荷蘭出差，雖不致於很興奮，也不會覺得無聊啦，尤其聽說這次子公司所在地是當地可愛的古老小鎮，Delft。

待了近三週的時間，閒暇時間去了Naarden, Alkmaar, Rotterdem, Amsterden(主要是逛上次漏掉的滑鐵盧廣場的跳蚤市場，結論是...有時候不要太堅持，錯過了就錯過了。^^||),Den Haag, 當然還有Delft囉。

也許是出差的關係，整體上並沒有太多旅行的心情，所以也沒作啥功課，就走馬看花，印象最好的應該是Den Haag 跟 Delft。一個是逛街的好去處，一個則是可悠閒度日的好所在。但如果說，還要不要去荷蘭........ㄟ 歐洲好玩的地方，應該還很多吧?! 嘿嘿嘿嘿

這三週多虧與子公司同事的哈啦度日，雖然發生一些不是很令人愉快的事情，不過稽核工作咩，會太平靜就不正常了。至少這次經驗再次驗證，人就是人，管你是哪種膚色，遇到稽核的反應，都是一樣的，哈哈哈哈哈。