Resurrection

Oh, my! It's been such a long time since I last posted. Too many things have happened. Career-wise, I'm currently undergoing a Training Program in preparation for a promotion. Travel-wise, I've been to Europe and had the most amazing time in Paris.

In Austria, I saw colourful cemeteries. The places actually looked festive.

Mini Break in Fiji

After 5 months plus some days of working, my planner asked if I wanted to go on a break just before I transfer to a new department. I said yes, surprised that I was even going to be given a break considering I was still on probation. Then all the reshuffling happened and I got a new planner and a new co-IC. I was worried for a bit since I might be asked to cancel the trip as I was the only person left in the department who sort of knew what happened. Fortunately, my new planner was cool with the idea of my mini vacation and even suggested I extend it considering it was only for 3 days. V tried canceling and re scheduling the flight but Air Pacific didn't have flights one day earlier than was originally booked and canceling and going with Virgin meant paying nearly a grand again so we just stuck with our original sched.

Flying out of Melbourne was a bit stressful. It was a Tuesday night flight out which meant I was still at the office. I meant to leave at 2 pm  but with things coming up at the last minute, I got to leave at 3.30 pm. I got home at 5.20 pm and managed to pack some more items before we left at 6 for the airport.

While waiting to board our delayed flight, there was a bit of a commotion with some passengers of the Thai Airways flight. The boarding gate was next to ours so we sort of got a front view seat. A guy was a bit frazzled and trying to ask one of the ground crew for help and was told to go to the service desk. Next, security personnel starting arriving by twos putting disposable gloves on. They were all headed to the toilet. Two ground crews manned the entrance and redirected passengers to other toilet facilities. Then they brought in 2 wheelchairs. Then a stretcher. One ground crew staff mentioned how the flight started as a nightmare and continues to be a nightmare. V and I looked at each other and were glad we weren't on that flight.

Finally, after 45 minutes, we were allowed to board and were on our way to Fiji!

From the time we arrived at the airport to the time we departed, it was nothing but a relaxing experience. The fact that we were relatively away from everything and the people were lovely made it such a lovely experience.

I'm a bit lazy writing about everything so I'll just post photos instead.

View from our room

White Water Rafting with River Fiji

At the "Free Massage" Waterfall

The seafood platter for two at the Wicked Walu, Warwick Resort

Update

It's been awhile since my last post. I'm not even sure if I want to continue with my blog as I'm too tired to post after an 11-12-hour day. Staring at a computer the entire day drains me, a different kind of tiredness from being on your feet. But I find it more fulfilling. I see the impact of my decisions on a different level from that of a store level and I'm learning more and more each day.

It's my 4th month with this company and I seem to handle things pretty well now. I'm no longer frustrated since I've already learned how things work and how to solve things and who to contact when I want to get things solved so now it's just a matter of doing things efficiently to have the most impact financially.

I'm still waiting for a more permanent update from work before I can blog more so can't tell much at this point.

New Year. New Job

And so, I started this year a bit rested. After all those graveyard shifts at Myer, I was able to have a few days to myself and with V to celebrate the new year. We went to Sydney and watched the fireworks (only the 9 pm show since we wimped out. hehehe) and came back with 2 days to spare for myself before the my new job started.

Yep, you read that right. I'm now working in a job I've always wanted to do (always being after finding out there was more to the fashion industry than just being a designer or a buyer). I'm so happy people remembered "I had a brain". =PPP

It has only been a few days but I'm already learning a lot of things. I'm truly grateful and happy. =))))

Done!

After years of studying, I am finally done. What I learned, which have been reinforced these past months, is that I would never be a machinist. I have great respect for those who can just whip up clothes but I am not one of them.

Here is part of my collection:

Model: Nicole Labianca
Photographer: SMB

Progress

or lack thereof.

So many things are just cropping up that's not making me happy. I have toiled and retoiled so many times, it's no longer funny although I'm trying to find the lighter side of things. But I have persevered so it's not that bad. I've found alternatives and my lecturers have actually helped me find solutions for them, for example, my final fabric for my dress was sheer so she recommended using gore to give it a bit of a weight.

My timeline states that I should have finished two outfits by now but I'm still in the troubleshooting stage. =(

The Heat is On

And I don't only mean the surprising summer weather this early spring but the stress level to do the graduation collection is on and increasing by the day.

I've ordered my fabrics and they have arrived with the exception of my wool which I've ordered from Michael's fabrics. They have limited but exceptional fabrics. They carry Armani and Zegna fabrics. They're a bit pricey but you do pay for quality products (I hope. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the wool.) There's also the Fashionfabricsclub and they have more variety. They sell by the yard and not by the meter so essentially, I'm going to lose 10 cm each time. I haven't bought anything from there yet since I found a local wholeseller here. They're in Sydney but hey! it's local to me. =)

Two of my fabrics have been sent for dyeing and while I was told that it usually takes 11 days, I could expect the fabrics by next week.

All I need to do now is buy my threads and stock up on the appropriate needles. I know I should have ordered everything earlier, which I did, when I bought my fabrics in Shenzhen, but it turned out that I needed more. Two of the fabrics were sent for dyeing and the others, I'm using to toile my garments. I've already used up my wool elastane which goes to show that I didn't take everything into account when I did my plan. Well, now that I'm in the thick of things, everything should fall into place nicely.