November 14 2008: I’m Not Really Amanda Chan
Filed under Life with 16 Comments
I’m having trouble renewing my passport. The first problem involved the fact that I was moving from a child passport (I was one month shy of being of age when I received my last passport) to an adult passport, which requires me to complete an entirely new application, rather than a simple online renewal.
The second problem involves the fact that I’m not really Amanda Chan. Sure, my driver’s license, child passport, and all current identity documentation recognises me as Amanda Chan, but when my Hong Kong birth certificate and Australian citizenship certificate recognises me as Ching Man Chan, Amanda Chan doesn’t officially exist as a person and is ineligible for a passport.
Essentially, I have to shell out about $100AUD for an official change-of-name certificate to change my legal name to a name that I’ve been known as for the past fifteen years, a name that I’ve been in sixteen years of education as, a name that I drive on, and a name that I’ve flown overseas before on. The process of changing my name legally takes twenty working days, which means then that I’ll be pressed for time in my passport application and will have to pay extra for priority processing so that I actually receive my adult passport before I fly to Europe.
I blame my parents for failing to have me legally recognised as Amanda Chan when we first moved to Australia. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
On the bright side, when I went to the police station today to get some documents certified for my name change application, I got to drool over a hot male in uniform, which is always nice.
November 13 2008: QOTW: When Office Romances Go Bad
Filed under Media & Men & Q.O.T.W. with 11 Comments
So I was watching House last night (my Wednesday nights are kind of scheduled around watching the show), and I got to thinking: How hard is it to date within your workplace, especially if a relationship goes sour?
Taking Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer as an example, they play two doctors (Allison Cameron and Robert Chase) involved in a relationship on the show. They were also previously in a relationship in “real life”, and were engaged for a brief period of time. With the engagement broken and their relationship dissolved, how on earth do they manage to continue to play out scenes like those in last night’s episode where they had to be a couple, and do couple-y things? Surely it must hurt in some way to have to imitate for the cameras the kind of behaviour you once shared in private?
On a more basic, less celebrity-esque level, what happens when office romances go wrong? Say a girl in Accounting started dating a guy in Marketing, they were together for six months, everything went well, everyone in the company knew about their relationship…then it all just busted up. It didn’t work out for one reason or another, and while the breakup wasn’t acrimonious, they’re not exactly hanging out together on weekends. What do they do now? How do they handle the new situation at work? How do others around them handle it?
It’s not yet something I’ve had to deal with thus far (benefits to working in a small maternity wear boutique), but if you believe chick lit novels, it happens all the time, and it’s something I should be expecting in my future working life. Frankly, it sounds like a nightmare. Please, try to convince me otherwise.
Question of the Week: Have you ever been involved with someone from work, and if so, what happened when you guys separated?
November 12 2008: You Got It For Five Cents!
Filed under Friends & Money with 15 Comments
I hate my friend. Okay, harsh words. It’s not so much hatred, but more like exasperation that she doesn’t indulge my guessing games.
Every time I see her, some tangent in conversation will inevitably lead to me exclaiming “Oh my god, I bought the most amazing <insert item of clothing here> from <insert middle-to-high-brand store here>! You won’t believe how much I got it for!”.
Unfortunately, she’s become unwilling to indulge me, and has started responding with nonsense amounts like “two dollars!”, “fifty cents!”, “five cents!”. With these answers, it’s hard to say “five dollars!” with some sense of triumph. I love her to pieces, but please, give me some satisfaction!
I need to find someone to put up with my self-congratulatory behaviour and babbling about great shopping deals every time I see them. Volunteers? Anyone? Anyone at all?