December Update

Apologies for not posting as much as before. It's been nuts as usual lately.

First off, I am reminded that it's been just over 2 years since M's passing. It was a sad moment during that time. I was sad that I didn't have anymore dreams about him, or of him visiting in my dreams, but in a way I guess it's a sign that he's free from his sorrows. The memories came back and it was hard to function during those couple of days. He would've turned 20 this year. I should feel happy that he had lived quite a long life for a cat and that in those 18 years of him being with our family, he's been such a true blessing.

I was recently cramming for an exam that isn't mandatory to write as part of my job, but I decided to because I figured if I don't do it now, then I will never do it. *Nerd status ON!* I was scheduled to write last month. However, due to unforeseen circumstances of a worldwide system failure by the testing company, candidates were unable to write that day. And I was one of the "lucky" ones that couldn't write it.

I remember going into the exam centre and sitting to write the exam. The first sign that something seemed wrong was the amount of time it took for the test to load. The circle kept turning and turning and turning...but nothing was loading. Then after what seemed to be forever, a page of jibberish appeared. Yeahhhhhh...that wasn't suppose to happen.

I ended up notifying the clerk and he didn't know how to fix, so he contacted the main help desk at the testing centre. It was at that point that we realized they were having technical difficulties since the beginning of the day and were trying to fix it. I guess they were hoping to have it all fixed by the end of the day,  hence why they didn't notify the candidates. But as the time kept progressing, there was no end in sight to fix this issue. Then they told us to reschedule another exam date.

Ok great, so here I am trying to call the testing centre to reschedule the exam. And it's a national holiday (Remembrance Day), so of course they're closed. I (and who knows how many other candidates) are left having heart attacks for the next 2-3 days wondering what will happen because no one could get through the testing centre, and we only had until the 15th to write this exam, which by the way all the dates were booked up, and having this happen at the last moment it was impossible to reschedule around our work schedules.

Finally, we get a response from the association as well as the testing centre to apologize for all the delay etc etc. And thankfully they extended the exam dates to this month. We also got compensation for all the troubles (I mean hey, better than nothing).

So after all that craziness, I was finally able to write this month. I had already taken off enough days to study for this, and then now I didn't want to use up anymore vacation days for this exam. It was a tough exam, but just hoping for a pass. Fingers crossed.

Aside from that, I also did something unexpected. I found a purse. Again.

Except I went the consignment route. I saw it on IG a few weeks ago and kept an eye on it. I was surprised it hadn't sold so I inquired about it. I went to see it in person, and I said yup, I'm taking you home. I figured for that price and for that material, it was a good deal (so to speak). My next post will cover all the details about the recent addition to my collection.

With that in mind, I said goodbye to another handbag of mine, in exchange for this recent addition. I hope someone else out there will get better use out of it than I, as it just sits in my room. Stay tuned.