It’s been a whirlwind of 15 days towards the start of the new year. On the first day back to work, my friend announces she got engaged over New Years. I was buzzing with excitement for a week and I was like exuding happiness for my friend’s happiness. A few days later in the weekend, I bought my first car, and I was exuding excitement for an entire week until I picked it up. Got to explore a little of Melbourne with it over the weekend. Tired from all the excitement in the first two weeks, went to work half asleep and was hit with news halfway through the morning. And what news it was.

I have been offered a chance to go to New York to work. One of my colleagues there is to be promoted and I have been given first choice to fill his role. If I chose to go, it’d be for 3 months to test the waters and if everything settled well, I’d be there for at least a year or two. You cannot imagine the kind of excitement this generated in me (and oh shit, I just bought a car! Doh!). No one in their wildest imagination would dream of a chance to work in New York, and to be exposed to so many things. Alas, while I was still buzzing with excitement and shock from the news, the only thing holding me back was not a car, or any other little things, but how I’d be able to be with Vyanne.

For all the excitement generated, I could only think of sharing the news with friends/family and asking their opinions. Everyone was in the opinion to take up the offer. I was so distracted that just outside the restaurant I had dinner at, I walked into a lamp post, and took out one eyebrow hair (one hair strand, not the entire brow) and some skin in the process. It was evening and the setting sun was glaring in my face, so the lamp post was in my blind spot. Heh, okay, so maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but the little knock brought some sense of reality back to me, and while it hurts now, took away all my other stress related aches. Heh.

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One is never too sure of how they will end up. I have a week to consider the offer and I am leaning towards going. Right decision or not, it is definitely an experience to have. Still plenty to think about.

Picked up my Honda Jazz yesterday. Sweet.

Was at the bank earlier in the day to grab a bank cheque and I’ve been out of the loop for a while. Heh, walked in looking for the paper slips that you fill in to withdraw cash. Couldn’t find any so walked straight to the counter. They just needed my debit card and some ID to go through with the transaction. Being a responsible bank officer, when the person asked me who the cheque was for and found out I was purchasing a car, I was immediately offered a recommendation for insurance. Heh, it’s typical of my bank to tack on other products when they have the opportunity. I then made the mistake of saying that I haven’t purchased insurance yet (I already had something in mind but hadn’t bought it by then).

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Anyway, got the cheque, waited until I left for work and went to the train station. Met up with Jerome and both of us set off to Brighton, where my dealership was. Heh, got picked up by the salesperson and just before getting off, was driven past my super shiny Jazz. Sweet. Sat down in the showroom, went through some details and finally got the keys to my car. We walked up to my shiny new Jazz and upon opening the driver’s door, you could smell a whiff of what new cars smelt like. Was walked through all the fantastic engineering feats that went into the car. It has many little features and touches that make the car feel so snug. Heh, it’s just a car, but you feel so intimidated by all the features and functions. The bonnet was lifted to show the heart of the car, a 1.5L VTEC engine. Sweet. All of us got into the car and off we went.

It’s a new car, so gear shifting was a little stiff compared to the test model I drove. Even so, it still felt like the Jazz I first fell in love with. Yeah, it is a nice little car, subtle handling and an easy pace about it. It just felt good. My parking is still a bit dodgy and managed to get 1 metre between my car and the curb. Finalised the trade (my wallet suddently felt very empty) and off we went. At first I was a little worried that I’d get lost out in the middle of nowhere but managed to study the roadmaps the night before (after 6 years in Melbourne, finally bought a road directory). It was a highway, just go straight and you can’t miss it, I told myself. Heh, fortunately I didn’t miss it and managed to get home.

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One day later, and I’m still quite happy with my car. There’s some construction going on outside my place and there’s a lot of dust on my not so shiny and not so new wheels now. Was a little annoyed with that. Heh. The engine needs to be broken in and no hard revving for the first 1,000km. There are still symbols on the dashboard that I have not familiarised myself with yet. Just reading through the manual now.

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It is terribly convenient to have a car. Lots of restaurants within 5 to 10 minutes drive from my place, which would otherwise take a half hour by public transport or walking. Just need to look after it properly now and drive safely. Sweet.

Nothing terribly much to blog about. My orchid is probably beyond help, and it shows I’m not a very ‘green’ person, considering I managed to murder an orchid plant. The heat is getting to me. At work it’s fine as I have air conditioning that’s chilly and I start defrosting once I step out of work but don’t feel warm until about 10 minutes later. By the time I reach home I’m melting.

Apple announced the iPhone today, which seems like the coolest mobile phone ever conceived. You’d have to give Apple credit for creating very interesting devices, with interface as the key to how it works. Other manufacturers just whack on features at the expense of useabilitiy (hence me reverting to a traditional phone manufacturer for my new phone next month, most likely the Sony Ericsson K800i, my O2 Mini is good but that’s only cause I’m used to it).

Have a chance for a performance review at work, and hopefully I can train the new person to take over some of my duties. Heh, smugly proud of the spreadsheet I designed as even my new colleague was pretty impressed with it. I do have a background in design useability (from reading all those web design blogs for the past 3 years) and it has helped to keep things friendly and functional. I’ve hinted I’d like to travel, and I’d like to see the Singapore office or even the London office. New York doesn’t seem terribly inviting to me, but maybe I’m just put off by the horrendously long flight.

On a side note, I’m enthusiastically anticipating the arrival of my new car. Went car shopping on new year’s eve with friends (who got engaged the very next day, my colleague and her husband to be, heh) and after much thinking, downgraded my choice of a Honda Civic (a very powerful car by my standards) to a much more practical Honda Jazz. I’d say I got a reasonable price for it, although thinking back a bit, the salesman happily reduced the price to what I expected to pay, meaning that I could have squeezed a little more out from him. It is a fairly large sum of money, but it’s something I’ve managed to save up for over the past year of working, so it feels good, to be able to purchase something with money you earned.

So I got a Honda Jazz, 1.5L with VTEC, on a manual transmission. I test drove it and was totally sold. Handling felt much better than the Civic, or it could just be that the Civic was a tad too powerful to what I’m used to. Pickup was smooth and relatively quick, and while not at a record setting pace, feels snappy enough. It should carry 5 adults with no constipated feelings (I know the Proton Wira I drive back home feels like a reluctant mule when there’s 5 people in it). Would have loved the sports version of this car, with the 15″ alloys, rear spoiler and side skirts (it makes the car look so much sexier) but looks, and a slightly different suspension, don’t justify a 2.5k increase in the price tag.

Heh, suddenly have to figure out car insurance, getting a road map and the e-Tag device (automatic toll deduction device), so my expenses for this month is probably much, much higher than my average. It feels more justified buying a $750 lens than it does paying the same amount for insurance. Heh, maybe one is just used to the idea of having something tangible around.

Trying not to get too excited about things, as it is against my policy to get too excited and later realise that things are not up to my expectations. Friday is the day to wait for, counting down.