30 is the new 20, literally!

*grins*

Arbitrage is frigging hilarious.
Kill me now so that I don't have to take this exam, please!

*maniacal laughter*

I shall now try to cram 1 year's worth of economics classes into my head in 1 day..

:P

I really need the pressure to study, it doesn't work otherwise...
Anyway, in conclusion, either, I'm very very smart, obviously not very hardworking (not like those hardworking female colleagues of mine, studying regularly all the time..) to even attempt this, or, I'm just plain fucking retarded and stupid enough to attempt it.

We shall find out. If the brain doesn't explode, after Sunday. Lol!

I feel remarkably like a student again.
This is weirdly cathartic for me. Have never had to read so many things at one go. I suppose it's what you call last-minute-hug-buddha-leg syndrome.

Saturday wasn't too bad, I was out with the gf to The Garden Slug restaurant. Granted, it was a long walk, but, we ate like 64 bucks worth of food among the 2 of us. Think 2 appetisers (friend zucchini and mushrooms, chicken soup), 2 mains (mixed grill, lemongrass spaghetti), 1 desert (mixed tiramisu, etc etc), I think even the serving person was amazed. It was good value for money though, and the place reminds me of the small eclectic eateries you'd see around Greenwich village.

Speaking of which, the attraction to go work along The Street is growing. Maybe the whole room and house renovation thing was an odd ploy by the parents to keep me home. Ok ok, the designer furniture and customised built in's aside..

SATC wasn't too bad. 4 bucks for a ticket, won't complain :)

Went for my grandaunt's funeral after that - it really is loss feeling the passing. I guess one way to remedy it is to make sure I pay enough attention to my existing living elderly relatives.

I'm awake and doing work now. Some crappy strategy thing which I think is a fucking waste of taxpayer's money. 9am presentation to big bosses. Boo...at least after tomorrow, I'll have some of my life back.

This week is going to be slanging week.
Let's do, new york accent. bwahaha....wonder how many people I can irritate!

I just remembered that I had to write this down since the girlfriend would object if I didn't write it down :P

Some of you might realise that she's really one hot girl, and I agree, she is hot to me too.
It wasn't with that much surprise that when she walked into Wala Wala last weekend, all eyes were on her. You know, not in a lewd fashion, but she definitely had the attention of the floor. She always feels that somehow, I make her look really young - for which I digress, I don't, working has aged me somewhat from times before.

It was quite hot watching her toss her long black hair and bask in the attention. :)
I'm just gonna spoil it all by saying that my bright green ithaca-is-gorges shirt so shocked everyone that they just had to look at us :P
(just to prick the girlfriends' ego!)

Kidding!
In other news, I've realised that Hed Kandi is my salvation as I march closer to my exams. I can't believe the amount of info going into my head, between reading dragonlance (secretly..) and studying, I think I'm going to explode from the sheer amount of information going in :P

Oh, and one other thing, for those of you who scoff at Combat classes (as I once did...), seeing as to how I was on leave last fri, I made my way down for this killer instructor's class. Suffice it to say that I nearly died, and woke up last sat morning feeling like I didn't want to crawl out of bed. Damn, it was a good cardio session though.

Some of you might know I'm on massive leave to stay at home and study.. :)
Anyway, that aside, it's been rather restful, other than the stupid amount of work I had to do on leave.
That's the organisation for you, forever sucking and never giving backl! Hah!

Saturday was much more restful. I went out for dinner with the girlfriend, and later we and her sister went for drinks at Wala Wala. It's been a while since I last stepped in there; Shirlyn was singing. Nice voice, just, cliche-ed music, heh. And, what's wrong with the crowd man, it looks like it's been infested with army boys and JC kids. Guess it's time to switch places!

I have to admit that going out with the girlfriend is always an enjoyable experience - more so when her sister joined in the joke telling session!
Over a plate of fresh chicken wings and fries (I know, my non existent abs going down even more), we ended up poking fun at quite a few mutual friends.

Did a quick drive back, patted the dog with a "hi", and yeah, am back to sleep now.
Oh wait, maybe I'd go read up some dragonlance I mean cfa stuff first..

Ok so here are the grad school choices..I'm not exactly sure if the following are better:

a) PhD programme
b) central US biz school
c) local (SG) biz school
d) local (foreign) biz school

Think I'm tending towards d) and probably selectively for c). But b) is damn, damn tempting.... The capital outlay is horrendous though..omg.

I was looking at my stuff that I have to study, and, damn, so much shiate.
Never said it was easy I guess.

Am juggling many thought streams now (you'd have thought I was a multi core processor). I've gone through the crunch before, it can't be worse than what I've been through.
With some luck, and the support of family and friends, I think I'll be able to pull through the cramming.

Woot when it's all over - I get to do all the things I like to do and have to do..

Over the weekend, I went out for a wine tasting session with my best friend A at botanic gardens. 50 bucks for 50 wines - I wasn't complaining..
Only drank the first round of Bollinger brut (dry) champagne bubbly, and after that, I decided that the canapes weren't really cutting it, so I had to eat more to line the stomach, and spit-taste the rest of the wines. Prudent me decided to taste the 90 buck wines, then the 80 buck wines...and so on down the list, to get my $$$'s worth. (cheapskate wat...)

I realised that after about 10 wines, I couldnt' really taste anything much. I could only vaguely tell if something was red, or white. Oops...

Other than that, it was fun to see A get goo gaa over one of my alumni friends. I've never seen A in a schoolgirl mode...though she decided that it was way outside her age range, albeit with impressive qualifications (and a fiance to boot!). Did the requiste introduction of A to my other alumni and schoolmate friends, and one of my old classmates who's now engaged to another classmate of mine eye-ed A up and down. A felt threatened, I was just amused...heh. Although I sure didn't want to be there when the upcoming cat fight between those 2 women started.

Back to books...at this hour, as I brace myself for another exam (I notice I take exams just cuz I can, to collect papers...), I question myself as to why I do this. Oh well, I don't know either...

I was flicking youtbe online looking at music videos.
Jumped across one that was, well, quite nice, honestly. I have to take my hat off to those who can make it through the whole american idol maze - they really can sing! The show definitely has uncovered its share of able singers, leona lewis being one of em. Although initially, I had thought that this was a newer cover of an 80s song. Some quick googling revealed that john mccartney's daughter had a part in the song - no wonder, I thought.

Then like a teaser, I had this image of, well, some erh trannie (think, kumar) cover version of this song. You know, complete with all the exaggerated hand motions and lip synching and drama moods.
Shux, completely spoils the lyrics and mood of the song doesn't it!

*grins*

Time to get it in the water again...
Or maybe go back to grad school.

ARGH DECISIONS!

I was out talking to one of my friends, and for some odd reason, the thoughts of wanderlust and alternatives outside of Singapore arose again.
Honestly, if you ask me, there was a time when I thought I'd never come back.

I guess, after talking again, over these past 2 years or so that I've been home, I've never really fitted in completely. There was always this unsettled seed of movement inside.

Time to start looking. Getting too comfortable here. That job ad and posting suddenly looks tempting..more tempting than forbidden fruit.

I guess I ought to be not a silent reader..haha!
Speaking of which, I wonder how many readers here actually have dialled my cellphone and gotten my missed call-voicemail thingie.

Was wondering what the reaction would be..I've got varied reactions, ranging from "stop that deranged accent!" to ".................... (with the requisite frown)".

LOL!

I thought I'd pen down some thoughts I had over the course of the day.
I realise that I'm using a lot of "I's". Point to note, it's not always a singular, "about me" sort of situation.

The other thing is that, as I get older, I realise that I'm more a sentimentalist than I had ever thought I was - placing more stock on birthdays, events, special thoughts, that kinda thing. And I'm rather quick to anger if things don't turn out.

So what struck me was, well, as I get older, do these motivations change? After some thought, I realise not - it's actually the outward responses that do. So for example, after some time, even though you want to stab that bloodsucking backstabbing fucktard of a colleague, at work on a Monday, it's still a "Hey, how's it going! How was your weekend? *cue wide smile*" sorta thing.

Such a mockery, lol!
But I guess, every time I concede that little flash of anger, be it for work, relationships, friendships, or what not, a little part of me dies inside. I guess the hard part is making sure that part grows again, because at the end of the day, if everything dies, there isn't much of any emotional attachment left for friends, significant others, or family, is there?

To grow a little bit of that part every day, is my resolution. Because another little part just died today. What I can do is to try to grow it back again..

For those of you out there who read my blog still, no, just to inform everyone, I've not faded into oblivion as a lurker in the midst of all the LJs :)
I've been bogged down by the tedium of work, gym, and setting up the new room. As of now, things are roughly all in place, with some minor hiccups e.g. the chair(s), ceiling fans, and all that what not still waiting to be sorted out.

I have one remark to make - oh wow, whoever knew that home improvement was such a costly process! If you really want to make your place look "oh wow!", well...yeah, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys...

Have also been reconnecting with my old HDDs from my college days. I was dredging my HDDs, and being the soppy person that I am, I found this file, which I'm sure everyone recognises as "the korean sob story where the girl loses her eyes and the guy donates his eyes".

have a look here:



I know that the surgical technology doesn't really exist so far to transplant eyes (donor rejection, optic nerve reconnection, etc), but if you discount all that, it's actually quite touching!

*amused*

Ok back to room improvement. Maybe I'll throw some parties when I'm done..seeing as to how the parents started the whole house-warming-random-entertaining-thing..

Did I mention that I was at The Club at The Legian in Bali? ;)



Ok so the villa is decadent, since it is the enclave arm of the main hotel..
I have to give kudos to the food, great butler-ess, free flow bar (with alcohol!)...and the list goes on.

One more thing about the butler-ess, she seems to have a serious case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She cleans the place every time I step out and puts all my stuff e.g. toothbrushes, face wash, shavers, etc, all in order, from left to right. Omg. It's crazy. Even I'm not that compulsive..

The restaurants here aren't that bad too. Think Dempsey, but transplanted onto another island. I'm trying to pick a place to eat at for dinner tonight. Think Japanese sounds good ;)

I have to say, having too much leave to clear might not be too bad a thing to do.
Spent a leisurely day at home studying. Wheee...managed to get some stuff in, going back to study more now.

Some random thoughts - the group of girls singing next door sounds vaguely like moaning cats.
You know, the sort in heat.

Ok I digress. Thou shalt go and peruse derivative investments now..

On a related note, my prayers go out to those who have passed on. I dedicate my trivvium to those who gave their all and who paid the highest price for it. Next time, I'll definitely not feel so not guilty about life vests.

Might as well vogue it. Whee!

I know I haven't exactly been the least irritable person with the cfa stuff looming on the horizon.
Well, thanks to phine, I had this freaky vid of a really, really, really good counter tenor.
(p.s. I can do a rather mean counter tenor, but I don't have half the voice control this guy has!)

I just got photographed for some annual report thingie.
Ah well. Free publicity!
The only point I have to complain about is that I most DEFINITELY (!) did not mouth those words attributed to me. Go figure. I don't know either. It's like inserting words in someone elses' mouth(read: speechwriting for higher ups like we always do :P )

On a side note, I think the photograph isn't complimentary at all....kudos to the non photogenic me..duh!

For those of you who were wondering why I was taking a hiatus from all the blogging, its because I'm (a) renovating house; (b) studying my ass off for CFA. I'm quite pissed from not being able to run Stan Chart this year (actually, to get the off that results from it..heh). But I suppose that taking one little step now is worth the 6 months of slogging in the long run. Who knows, it might open the door to more grad school opportunities. Like I didn't get enough of school, right.....haha!

Have a look at those humongous showerheads here:



I was just showering under my new rainforest shower. I have to thank the smart person who invented this thing. It's akin to having a ayurvedic head massage with dripping oil. Ooooooo.... Also took a look at my room, which just had the parquet flooring redone. With more than 50% more size, decoration will be fun. Adieu!

Definitely feeling cranky...

I've realised that for some odd reason, I've been frequenting Japanese restaurants too much this week. There was the sojourn for spicy beef ramen (korean?) on Tuesday to send off a colleague who's quitting (again, sigh..), a fantastic unagi lunch at a spot frequented quite a bit by political names, then there was baked mackerel today again because one of my clients insisted that I had to turn up. So I did, what was I to say, no I'm busy?

Anyway. Got the hair cut today (again). It looks moderately tame now, compared to the previous incarnation which definitely raised some eyebrows. Tehehe. Of course, yesterdays' round of lycheetinis at mortons' that boss bought was great, for a closed project.

Looking forward to the slower weekend so that I can study more. Wheeee..

Uhm, yeah, I'm actually alive, just not posting because I'm too lazy to pull out the LJ editing thingie that resides somewhere on my desktop.

I'm sure most would be wondering where I've been, I've been well, thank you, maybe a bit too well, some would say. Aside from the toil that is work, this year seems to be an extension of being in college again - I just got the golf PC thingie, and am currently trying to get the handicap thingie (being partway there already). Golfwise, at least, I suppose bringing the handicap to below 18 points would be the goal within the next year (hah!).

Work has been rather good. After moving away from that fiasco, things are looking up.

National day came and went - I've never been a big fan, though I recognise the significance and need for it. Ah well. One more year has passed.

Time wise...what with CFA and all that nonsense coming up (yes, I have to read 2200 pages before December...and am not running StanChart because of the freaking exam), I'm guessing that no one is going to be seeing much of me at all till next June, what with the level 2 exams being in June and me having to cram all the way for the next 1 year or so. Boo hoo..I guess the flip side is that provided there isn't too much slacking, it ought *not* be too hard to pass. Might need quite a bit of arse luck but we'll see how things go along the way.

Am currently waiting for my ears to stop ringing. I think going out late nights isn't sitting too well with my system. Must be the age thingie coming up. In either case, house parties are better than staking out Butter Factory (hah, it rhymes!). I've always wondered what the fuss was about churning out butter given all that milk at the door.

Anyway, bad joke. Back to reading about utility maximisation...why oh why..stupid econometrics....I can only hope that I still remember how to derive the damn derivative...bah...

Z!

Some of you might know that the latest bug to bite me starts with the letter G, and is sponsored by letters O, L and F.
You read it right. Yours truly's parents have recently been bitten (well, not so recently) by the golf bug. Aside from getting the requisite club memberships, more golf club sets in the house than there are people (......), innumerable golf balls, and other assorted paraphernalia, I've also been harangued to get up at 6.30am to play golf on weekends. This is in exclusion to time spent at assorted driving ranges.

Now, who the f gets up at 6.30am on any weekend?!

I guess the near term goal is to get a handicap asap. Pardon me if I'm (somewhere ... ) golfing. It was unintentional!

Ok aside from that, besides the fact that work is picking up, its still nice to catch up with friends and family. I'm currently settling into a work-eat-sleep-shit-exercise-golf routine. We'll see how well that works out in the short term. If not, there's room for change.

On the other front, younger bro and I are working our charms on the parents. In the near run, its just me trying to get the mom to go shop at Performance Motors. I'm sure she'll be converted once she gets her hands behind the wheel :P

Just had a rather interesting weekend. I was out to watch this production by SSO that performed video game theme songs. The rousing part where the orchestra was playing the World of Warcraft theme song (for the geeks - when you enter Stormwind, that part!) was fantastic. Other than that, it was rather lacklustre.

A couplea other friends jioh-ed me out to go and shop at Mustafa's. Other than the culture shock I always get when I get there, it wasn't too bad - got a few groceries, and that stuff, pat down. Then it was back to sleep =)

Saturday was rather boring. Woke up to a rainy day and then zipped down to pick up some Addidas pants and stuff at Queensway. Then, of course....in true attas style, I went with the gf to go test drive the BMW 335i at Performance Motors. Not a bad idea for a new car, if you have the money, if you ask me. It handles great, and feels much better than the 320i which I'd tested as well. Am waiting for the base 325i to go down a bit in price first before even thinking of cars, unless the 335i drops that much pricewise (which I doubt, seeing as to how the waiting list stretches till Dec 07 from now) but yeahh...it's definitely the German touch that makes every auto enthusiast's heart beat just a bit faster. Or it could be the 306hp twin turbo on a straight in line six which lets you do the century sprint in something like 4.6 seconds. Very nice..considering that your golf clubs (2 sets, I checked) can fit in the trunk as well!

Dinner was this nice wiener place nearby. Good food, great sauerkraut. Love the bacon!

Later on in the night (rain aside) involved me and the gf and a couplea friends making a quick visit to Velvet Underground. I hadn't stepped into that place since late 2002...so that citibank clear card came in quite useful what with queue cutting and all :) The guest DJ wasn't too bad, Phuture was exactly as I remembered it...and I bumped into another lawyer friend pretty young thing who works at one of the big firms. Not bad, score :)

Sunday was much lazier, involving a long talk at Ya Kun and fast lunch at this new tze char place at Joo Chiat. Dinner was an easy affair - tar paow-ing fantastic char kuay teow from outside.

Off to work a bit now to prove my existence!

I went to go check out Le Saint Juliens yesterday, since I'd not treated my mom to mother's day food and celebrations.

As in all upper end French places...expectedly, if you're a big eater like I am, you end up stuffing your face on soft warm rolls laced with extra virgin olive oil. The food wasn't bad, though I preferred St Pierre's for my tastebuds, and no, I'm not a particular eater. However, the view was to die for - imagine watching a lighted bridge in the foreground against the backdrop of the Esplanade twin durians. Not bad at all, considering that 1/3 of the total price was probably going towards it. The portions were small, obviously, but hey, over rose Moet, French mineral water, and the great view, as well as paired wines for each course (and quite well paired, though I'd have preferred more Bordeaux reds) am not whining too much. It's a bit pretentious, but nicely done. I'd greatly recommend it for a special date, or if you have too much $ to throw. Was about to ask which credit cards give discounts before I decided against it :P

Anyways. Work nowadays is passable, not too many gripes. Rather, I look forward to lazy weekends. If only the weather would drop to the 20 degree range, that'd be great.

*laughs at self*

Quite amazing. I made the mistake of eating Awfully Chocolate's banana chocolate cake, and then nibbled on a colleague's Ghirardelli supply, fresh from the States.

Am currently feeling very happy. Or very stoned. Seeing as to how I did have an early night, I completely attribute this to the narcotic effects of caffeine. Coupled with dance tracks on an Ipod, this makes for a very....high...employee.

Or not. Could be all that sugar rush. Someone ought to ban these things from the market, sugar rushes and cocoa rushes ought to be in the same league as party drug abuse.

The weekend was great - albeit slightly more taxing than the weekday if that were possible! Spent quite a bit of time and money investing in heel gel inserts (because, leather shoes look nice but screw up your ankles). Hit the gym, clocked some time on the beach playing volleyball (and getting sun burnt on a cloudy day, for some weird reason). Ate too much for Saturday dinner since it was, after all, 8 course…and ate too much again on Sunday. I brought everyone over to Les Amis au Jardin – the conclusion is that the food’s not bad, but the ambience is what you pay for. Think there’s better French restaurants elsewhere : ) . However, we did bump into the ex Singtel CEO, so I guess that was mildly exciting, although I think the prune dessert with red wine was more fascinating!

I was typing on my nice black ergonomic microsoft (evil empire!) when I realised that the adjacent cubicle mate has this really, really, cheena, ringtone. Every time her cell rings, it sounds like this hong kong singer drawling "love with me, tend to me" something something.

Then again, I look at my ringtone, not that its much better too. Heh heh.

I was lunching with one of my JC friends the other day. He just got his LLB not too long ago and is just about to be called to the Bar (why bar?). Anyway, apparently, in the legal profession, it's tolerated (and expected implicitly) that each and everyone has a distinct personality, complete with all the eccentricities. Take his boss for example, who chuckles at the computer screen occasionally while flexing his fingers, for no reason at all. In other professions, I believe the term for the condition is schizophrenia. Don't mind switching professions just to get away with being oddball, lol!