Update, Christmas plans...

My good friend asked me to update her on events/plans. Quote: "Update leh... your blog isn't particularly illuminating".

I've been neglecting my blog, and with that my readers, I apologise. Too lazy you see, and too caught up with world of warcraft (WoW). Lately I've been rushing home after work just to spend 4 hrs on the computer.

Work has been pretty ok. Not particularly a lot of things to do, and I feel pretty confident about most tasks now - i.e., I won't screw up big time - so work has been... a little unchallenging. but i'm not complaining. especially after my "performance review" today, when my boss told me that I did very well this year.

Quote: "So how's L?"
She's good, still in the States doing her PhD. She really has a work-life balance - she took up dance again, and knitting, and she has loads of friends over there. Plus the weather there is brilliant, the food is cheaper that where I am, and she owns a car. I'd say she's living a better life than me. :P

"Christmas plans?"
Eh heh, can't stop grinning when I think about christmas. hehehehhee..

I'm leaving this friday to the States and I'm going to be seeing L after eight bloody long months! and heh, I better not reveal all our plans otherwise you guys will go green with envy (damn cliche..)

And I'll be there for 3 weeks.

And for her I'll be giving up WoW.

For 3 weeks.

Haircut

Had my hair cut last weekend. It was really short. Like a military guy. But I liked it.

Came in to work this morning and one response was,

“That’s serious.”

“What is?”

“Your haircut.”

On another occasion, another guy commented, “Ah, you had your hair cut.”

“Do you like it?” I asked.

“Yeah. You look like you’re saying, don’t mess with me. I’m ready for you.”

…

I never had that intention. I just thought it looked cleaner.

Well, at least they didn’t say it sucks. =D

Could we do this...

I always get this kind of work-related emails:

Dear W,
A couple of questions:
1. Can we look at the backtest to ...
2. Can we also look at ...
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thx,
M

Or

Dear W,
Could we do the following
1...
2...
Rgds,
M

Or

W,
Can we please cross check ...
Rgds,
P

Or

W,
We need to optimise ... and let us see what comes out.
Rgds,
P

Notice a pattern?
These are all emails requesting me to do some work, but instead of:
"Please work on this" or "Will you do this for me"
its always:
"Can we", "Could we", "Let us" etc.
and its not even "Can YOU", its always "we" or "us". When in fact its just ME.

Sometimes I just wish I could just reply
"Yes, WE can." or "Yup, I agree, WE should do it." and leave it at that. Based on syntax, that isn't a real work request, is it? Besides, if its a "we", its inclusive of the person who sent the email right? That means the responsibility also lies with the sender, right?

They make it sound like they're contributing something, but they're not.

How can I make it sound like they are not doing anything, I'm doing everything, and they're making it sound like "WE" are sharing the work?

Sigh...

Sorry for the extended absence..

To get right to the point, the reason why I didn't update the blog was not because I was swamped with work or errands or other important stuff.. and not because something terrible happened...

its because i kinda got addicted playing World of Warcraft. If you heard of it, you probably also heard that one 8 year old kid played for 4 days non-stop until he died. i'm not like that, in case you were wondering...

BUT, truth is I am addicted. every little bit of free time I have after work, I spend it playing the game. on weekends, if I don't have plans, I'll be at home playing it. While its fun, it kinda sucks the life out of you.

Yeah, i know, i should cut down on it. I will, I promise.

And I'll try to update this blog at least once a week.

And finally, before I end this post, I'll like to thank all you sweet things who emailed/msn-ed/sms-ed me birthday messages. To tell the truth, I would have forgotten its my birthday. haha.

A coupla things..

I hadn't been updating the blog lately, i realise.
Reasons are:
1 - been too busy at work.
2 - been too busy after work.

I wanted to post 3 issues today...
1. Limbo. Heard the pope was thinking scrapping the idea of limbo... i.e., right now if children die without getting baptised they won't go to heaven. So once he does that, children, apparently, will go to heaven if that occurs. Amazing isn't it? Maybe one day he could say that, oh, contraception is allowed. then maybe another day, oh, gay priests too. I mean, they argue that limbo is just a theological hypothesis.... but hey, isn't the entire faith a theological hypothesis?

2. Muslim headscarves. They created some waves a while ago in France, where it is outlawed. In Singapore too. And now there's this debate going on in the UK. This MP in the UK suggests that Muslims should take off their veils (you know where they cover their entire face except for a slit for the eyes), and then got shot back by a lot of people saying that he's being discriminating, racist etc. You are entitiled to your own views about this, but what I think is that people should be allowed to voice their opinions without being branded as racist. how else can we achieve understanding and tolerance??

3. World of Warcraft. I'm playing now. Which sorta explains why i'm cutting short my post.

Back in London

I only slept 2 hours the night before the flight. Reason being that I met CT (again, the second time that day) for supper/tea at Adam Road Food Center (really quite happening place) and had pengkang (barbeque/grilled) stingray with the shiok chilli sauce. and also a plate of char kuay teow. yum.

And then we went to a friend's place to watch the English Premier League. I think I watched more football in Singapore in that 2 weeks than I watched in England for 12 months. Caught a bit of Chelsea/Liverpool/Arsenal (not playing each other) and the whole of Man U vs Tottenham at 12am. The match wasn't too bad, but the climax of the night was the Barcelona match against some unknown team in the spanish league. That game started at 2am. Man, Barcelona seemed unstoppable. They basically had all the world's best and most promising players - Ronaldinho, Messi, Deco, Eto'o ... it was simply stunning, watching them tear apart the defence.

The match was done at 4am. Soon after me and my mum went to a market to buy some stuff, and we had breakfast at the market. Oooh, I had a plate of oh-so-good carrot cake. mmm-hmm... *smile on face*. So by the time I reached home it was 7.30am. Having to reach the airport by 10, I had to wake up by 9.30.

So the flight wasn't too bad. The moment I boarded the plane -> *poof* i was out. really dead out. the flight was delayed i think by close to an hour, because one of the passengers i think mistakenly boarded another flight (how the hell does that happen?) and they had to unload his baggage. but i didn't notice. i didn't even notice the plane taking off. i didn't notice them turning the lights off. or them going around giving warm towels. luckily by the time i woke, they were just about serving dinner. heh. only then did the captain explain the delay (otherwise I wouldn't even know there was a delay. haha)

Oh oh, i was supposed to write this down a while ago. When I first arrived in Singapore, I was surprised when I turned on my handphone and saw on the screen, underneath the M1 network name, the words "Changi Airport T2". Wow. I thought that was like, so cool. As I took the taxi back home, I constantly checked my handphone, and saw the text change to stuff like "Ubi Ave 2, Blk 369". Super amazing. In orchard road it sometimes became "Shaw House", or "Cineleisure". Woah. Best.

ok, back to the topic.

I bought an LCD monitor in singapore. A nice samsung 940BW. Initially I was slightly worried at the resolution setting, at 1440x900, as being too uncommon (weird). But no problem at all, I could set the resolution properly. See my computer setup now:
nice right?

Poor taste

 
As promised, this is a picture of one of the trees wrapped in red/white along orchard road. 

Some more thoughts before I fly back.

1. Tiffany is just soooo cute. She said (not to me but loudly enough for me to hear), "I like W- Kor kor". She treats me like I'm her knight in shining armour. How cute is that. L doesn't treat me this way... (got to clarify - if L treats me the same way, I'll really be quite worried)

2. I'm not young anymore. Can't go to Cineleisure and fit into the crowd anymore. And I cringe at their behaviour and conversation, half-wondering whether I used to behave/ talk like them.

3. A- called me. She was complaining that I never mentioned her in my blog. Truth was, her name did come up a couple of times during our gatherings. We're all wondering how she's coping in Bahrain.

4. Happy to have gotten to know KL better. Great guy. Only flaw is that he refuses to be treated. He has plenty of good-looking friends too. No wonder his wife was complaining.

5. Glad to have met up with so many old friends during this short trip.

Singapore Gripes

1. Uniquely Singapore. Its the campaign organised by the Singapore Tourism Board. I think people complained about this before. First of all, "unique" doesn't tell you much about anything right? It can be so dirty its unique. It can be so clean its unique. It can be steaming hot. It can be icy cold. The people could be super arrogant / unfriendly. Hell, any place in the world can be described as unique - even a patch of grass along the highway. Besides, it has become a more politically correct way of saying "fat" or "ugly" or "wierd". Eg., "What do you think of him?"

"Er.. he's unique."

You get my point.

2. Together, Singapore's OK. I think this is something during/just after the SARS period. You know when people were getting infected with some kind of virus and some kind of epidemic was going on? The government started to a campaign to get people to flush toilets, wash their hands etc. But what i hate was the Singapore's OK. OK only? man, shouldn't we be aiming for something better? Like... people ask you "how's the food?".

"Ok lor."

Sigh...

3. Have you seen the trees along orchard road wrapped up in red and white? Its in preparation for the IMF. Shows that some people just have bad taste. I'll try to take and post a picture of it for you all to judge.

Yeah, other than these gripes, singapore's ok.

Confusing C

This post is dedicated to my JC classmate, C. She says she doesn't mind this bit of fame (given my readership, heh, her fame is really limited).

She's one hell of a puzzle. My first impression when I saw her about 8 years ago was : Chao-Ah-Lian. And I don't think it was just me. Apparently the teachers also had the same bias. Long knee length socks, short skirt (ok, maybe it was her long legs), longish hair, I dunno, the general feel of her was just that, CAL. Three months later, I learnt she was one of the top students in Singapore, scoring twice as many A1s as I. erm.. to be exact, she scored more than twice as many as I.

Yet she gave me the impression that she was dumb. This was a girl who copied during a general knowledge test, and yet get 40 (out of 100). She thought that Macau was in Malaysia. There are more instances demonstrating her general lack of general knowledge, but I don't remember. I just remember that while I'm terrible at GK, she was just... atrocious.

And she's confusing because sometimes she gives me the feeling that she's very witty and sharp. I played dai dee with her once (and two other friends), and I remember we lost to her quite terribly, more than a few times.

I don't keep track of these things, but just yesterday she demonstrated her blurness again. It was drizzling. She complained that it was drizzling. FL, with her usual bluntness said,

"Eh, you have umbrella what, open it la!"

"Oh yah hor."

Me: "..."

And on our way back home, she was telling me about this TV show Greys Anatomy, which was full of witty humour. Then she started describing this particularly funny bit. Uh huh, I listened, full of expectation.

"So there was this guy with some kind of gun, K--..." (i forgot the name of the gun) ... I was still listening ... "So then he had a bomb in his chest. He got into an ambulance and the medic was pressing her hand against the wound, unknowing that he had the bomb in the chest... " ... then somehow he got to the hospital, i gathered... "... and then they realised there was a bomb. luckily it hadn't gone off yet, because around them were all the oxygen tanks, if it goes off the whole hospital would be destroyed. So they called the bomb squad ..."

"uh huh", i was still listening intently for the joke

she slowed down, and i thought she was going to deliver the punchline, "and the bomb squad removed the bomb and carried it outside... and then the bomb went off, killing the bomb squad".

"uh huh", yeah man, come on it has to come now.

"..." she didn't go on.

"so. what's the joke?"

"thats it. you didn't find it funny? i knew it was going to end like this when I didn't see you laughing midway."

I was silent for a while.

Wow.

And then I burst out laughing at her. She really blew me away. Her joke wasn't funny. But she was. I never expected that from her.

She then said, "Luckily you weren't Cindy. I'd have died if it was her."

Yeah. I'm kind. Less caustic than I was. And I'll probably never understand her.

Troubleshooting a faulty computer

I helped L's mum fix her faulty computer. Took a bit of time and imagination but I'm very satisfied I managed to fix it. Here's a walkthrough of the thought/ troubleshooting process.

When a computer doesn't power up, what could be wrong?

1. Power supply faulty. Check power supply unit. Remove cover from the computer case, remove power supply, and inspect for any burnt/black/melted components. The power unit in L's computer, without much doubt, had melted down. Could see a couple of components which looked more like goo than electrical components.

So I happily deduced the power supply was faulty. Went down to Sim Lim the next day and bought a new power supply unit. After installing the unit correctly, the computer still doesn't power up.

What else could be wrong?

2. Never on power switches. Duh.. Of course I checked before step one. But I checked them again this time. Nope, all switches are on.

3. Faulty power cable. Unfortunately at L's place, they only had one computer power cable, and only one component using it (the computer). Bo bian, cannot check (unless I stick two metal objects into the cable with my hands and seeing if I get an electric shock)

4. Blown fuse in the cable. The fuse showed traces of brown, might have blown. Replaced fuse with another one, and the computer still didn't start.

What else could be wrong?
At this point I nearly gave up. Decided to bring in an old computer to check another time...

The old computer could start. Switched the cable to L's com. Hmm. Didn't start. Given the power supply was new, and the cable obviously works, I can only deduce one other fault...

5. The power switch on the computer case was not working. It felt kinda "soft" to be honest, and didn't have the "click" when you press it. I decided to dismantle the switch from the case. Which involved 4 screws, a lot of prying and some guts to potentially crack/ damage the case. I didn't have a lot of the latter, so I thought I'd shift all the components from L's computer into the old case I brought.

After some time unassembling the components, I realised that the components from L's computer didn't fit into the old case! It wasn't compatible because of the power/reset/hd light connections.

Seeing no other way out, I decided to gather some guts and pry the switch out of the case. After I did that, I was more convinced the switch was the problem, because the switch had lost its ability to spring back out once it was depressed. I reconnected all the components and tested the switch, this time by pulling the switch back out instead of pressing it in. And it worked!

Once I had identified the problem, things became simpler. I pressed and pulled on the switch like 1000 times to loosen it, added some veggie oil as lubricant so it will spring back out, and fixed it back into the case. Computer fixed =)

Its such an innocuous component, the stupid switch... I wish I had identified that it was the problem sooner.

* update: it seems the computer has failed again. This time I think there's something wrong with either the graphics card or the graphics port. *

** update 2: I think I've fixed it again. At least, I'm using it now. I was wrong, there's nothing wrong with the graphics card/port. Apparently there's something wrong with the sound card, because once I unplugged the sound card it works fine. I've re-installed some drivers for the on-board sound to work. **

Good old times

Met with a couple more friends over the past two days. One group was my sec school classmates. man, we really go wayyyyy back. some people I haven't seen in like 10 years. it was really cool to meet up. everybody around the table, except the docs, probably haven't seen each other in years. The last gathering we remembered was sometime in 2002, when we met in Pizza Hut at Wisma Atria and proceeded to play CS at far east shopping center.

Everyone looked very much the same. Surprisingly. You would expect someone to change a lot in 10 years. But things had changed. Invariably, we were distant. Yet we were comfortable with each other. One guy was told us he broke up with his gf of 7 years. That, you usually don't say to distant friends. Another guy was confiding about his relationship with his gf. Even I found myself opening up and talking about things I usually keep to myself. It was fun.

The next day I met with a group of JC classmates. There should have been more people, but one is uncontactable (perhaps sailing), and another is in Bahrain. One more had a private birthday celebration with her husband (!) and another was on call (doctor duty). But there were still 7 people, thanks to one who brought her hubby (!) and another who brought her potential hubby (Mr GD!)

Ok before I go on, lets explain the exclaimation marks. See, to me its still kind of foreign. I haven't yet quite swallowed the fact that more than a handful of my friends are married. Its so weird because I still get checked for my ID when I go to pubs, or when I go cut my hair I always get the question, "studying or working?" (yeah student got discount).

I'm so happy to have finally met Mr. GD. Its not like I'm really concerned for that friend of mine, or wonder if Mr GD is the guy (snicker) for her. Its more like I had to see for myself if Mr GD knows what he has signed up for... and thats all. =)

Soon after I went to TJ's house to watch soccer (thanks TJ!). That was very enjoyable. We made jokes about this Andorra player who looked like he was a coffeeshop "uncle" (waiter). He had a thin lanky frame, sunken eyes, longish hair, and wrinkles on his face that made him look like 40... Then we critised Peter Crouch for being clumsy, and felt that he didn't deserve to score 2 goals. We exclaimed at Hargreave's two shots hitting the post. And we also had a good eyeful of "Miss Teen USA" which was also showing on another channel. Poor Ms Wyoming who looked really sweet and cute, got knocked out at the very first stage.

Oh oh oh! Gotta jot this down because its classic. One of the girls, who really looks like she belongs in a porn movie, got asked this question by the legendary Carl Lewis,

"How would you define 'Integrity'"

"Oh, Integrity is someone (!!!) who's determined (!!!) to succeed. He's passionate about his goals and will not give up along the way to achieve the things he wants."

Hahaha. TJ and I were laughing like mad after the answer. First of all integrity isn't someone. it isn't somebody. and she obviously didn't know what integrity means. Its ok if you have your own definition right, but come on, at least get the gist of the meaning la. Its not like people ask you what's honesty and you tell them oh it means that person is capable and intelligent. wtf!

anyway after her answer (last round already) we decided that she won't EVER get the title.

the surprising thing was that she did win the crown.

and my conclusion is that the judges didn't know what integrity meant either.

Thoughts while in Sunny Singapore

1. Rude drivers ...
Never fail to impress me. On one occasion I wanted to filter to the right. I signalled my intention early, and I was preparing to go in right after the car just beside me has passed. To my disgust, the car just behind the car next to me sped up and closed the gap. Fine, I thought, petty man, I'll go after you. As soon as I changed lane to the right, the car behind me flashed his lights at me! WTF! As though he couldn't see me. As though he couldn't see my intention. As though I obstructed him. He'll be like what, 2seconds slower? If it was me I'd have let the poor guy come into the lane. I've driven in the US and the UK, and in all honesty, even though the drivers in Singapore are without a doubt more highly skilled, they are undeniably more rude and inconsiderate.

2. Tiffany
never fails to amuse me. She remembers my name. She exclaims "w- kor kor come back already! But L- biu je and H- kor kor did not come back!". She throws a towel sized piece of cloth over her back and pretends to be a fairy. And flys around. Then she poses as prettily as she could in front of L's father. He gives her a shocked and disgusted look and she laughs and runs forward to "hit" him for mocking her.

3. Friends
Looked through my old cards that I received from friends on past Christmas/New Year/Birthdays. Cards from friends I haven't met in a while. Friends I used to be really close to, but got distant thru the years. Friends I wish I didn't neglect. Eh, I even got a Birthday card from a super slack JC classmate. nope you won't be able to guess - you'd never expect someone like him to send a card. Looking at all these cards made me think - how did an ordinary guy like me end up with such amazing friends.

4. Fire Alarm while opening accnt.
I was in a bank, opening an account. On the 30th storey. The lady was very professional and sorted out all the application forms. Halfway through, the fire alarm rang. You know normally its just a freak accident, or some form of vandalism that caused the alarm. Thats what I thought it was and brushed it off. All the while she was trying to explain something to me. And had to pause many times because of the alarm ringing and a guy shouting over the PA system, "Ladies and Gentlemen. May I have your attention please. The fire alarm has been activated. We are currently investigating it. Please remain at your desks and keep calm." Then in 30 seconds, "Ladies and gentlemen, there is an incident on the 18th storey. Will people from the 18th storey please head down to the plaza via the staircase. Please do not use the lift." Hmm.. the lady in front of me was determined to get it processed asap. And so was I. I wasn't prepared to make another trip. I nodded and nodded while she went through all the details, pausing as and when the guy over the PA interrupted. Towards the end, he was speaking almost all the time (very loudly), so the lady was forced to shout even louder to get her points across to me. Finally we settled everything, I got my stuff, went to the toilet first, before I climbed 30 storeys down the building.

So many things happened this week.

1. Cornwall trip. Went down with a couple of friends. Oh man, the scenery was really awesome. Never imagined that a part of England could be so beautiful. Helps that the weather was good. I'll post some pictures soon... or maybe not.. scroll down to see why.

2. At work yesterday, I stood up for myself in a small way. But I felt proud of that. Because usually I'm so acquiescent. Its a long story, but basically somebody decided unilaterally that the presentation should be postponed because the other guys had already taken too much time - and I asked to be given just 5 minutes to present, instead of postponing my 5 min presentation to sometime (who knows when) next week. Eventually I got my way, and I'm happy I did.

3. I had fun at football on Tuesday.

4. I'm going back to Singapore! Tomorrow! That means that I won't be updating the blog (because I don't think I'll have access to the internet. I live in a Kampung hut without a telephone line, not to mention cable/broadband.) for two weeks. Dear friends in Singapore: call me! you know my number!

5. I lost my keys. Its sad.

Security level has been downgraded to severe.

Just to let you know... Nothing bad has happened yet.

Played football just now. with real good players. Its always more fun to play in a team with good players. Reason being
- higher chance of winning so you feel better already
- more passes get to you
- you anyhow kick your teammates also get the ball
- less defending because they don't lose the ball so easily
- more attacking because there's less defending
- you look good when they score with a pass you made
- you look good when you score with a pass they made

going for a "team dinner" tomorrow night. Will update when i feel like it. =)

Security level: Critical.

Folks, if you haven't heard/read, police in the UK has apparently thwarted an attempted plane bombing. The current security level is "critical", which apparently means an attack is "imminent". Security has been stepped up in all UK airports. Yeah you can read it up on BBC if you haven't read about it.

I thought something was wrong this morning when I got off the tube at liverpool st. First you hear announcements like "Customers are advised that because of hightened security, delays may be occuring on all undergound lines". Then you see like twice the number of policemen standing around crowded areas. Then in the office my colleage mentioned something about the airports being closed. Hmm..

I'm supposed to say "don't worry, i'll be fine." But I know you're not worried anyway. hah.

by the way, I finally found my contact lens that I dropped on the toilet floor. I was feeling constipated one day and sat down on the toilet seat just, you know, relaxing and looking around when I saw it sticking to the side (the outer side) of the bathtub. Quite surprised that nobody else saw it, nobody brushed it off, it didn't drop back down to the floor, the cleaner didn't clean it away... that it was left there since 2 weeks ago.

It must have been flung 1.5 meters away when the case fell to the ground. So weird. You know after I spent ages looking for the lens, I actually filled the contact lens case with water and "simulated" as exactly as I could the way the case dropped, just to see how far the water would be flung out. The result of that experiment was that it was at most 20cm. Hmm. Now I know at least by how much I must widen the search scope.

A day in the life of a typical corporate finance analyst.

Yesterday, yes SUNDAY, I spent 12 hours at work. From 1pm to 1am.

Its a long story, but basically there was some work that I had to do by Monday morning.

It started off pretty cool actually. Lazed about in the morning, had a nice chat with my gf over the webcam, then headed off to work in a casual outfit by cab. Boss came in about 15mins later with a banana-caramel frappucino in his hand. Soon after I went out to get myself a strawberries and cream frappucino.

The work was challenging. I had to simulate the performance of a quite complicated product. It involved correlation, Cholesky decomposition, geometric brownian motion, and a lot of skill with Excel. So challenging indeed I spent the next 6 hours glued to the computer. (Boss left at about 5pm).

Dinner time came, but we were nowhere near completion. I decided to order some chinese takeout - to be claimed from the company of course. The food wasn't nice at all, given its price, but it was fun eating in the largest meeting room with two of my closest colleagues.

As time wore on, it didn't seem anywhere as cool as before. I started feeling like the time I'm spending in the office won't be noticed.

Finally, we neared completion. Not as ideal as I would have liked but it was 12.30am Monday morning already and I really had to go home otherwise I wouldn't be able to make it back to office 7 hours later.

So I took a cab back home, and promptly fell asleep in bed, groggy from the whole day's work.

I guess this is the life XP is living everyday. I can do this once a month, but no more than that.

Anyway, the next morning I woke up at 7.15 for my usual chat with my gf.

Her first question was "What time did you get back last night?"

(sleepily) "... 1 a.m...."

"Go back to sleep, quick" she said.

mmm.. I said goodbye and crawled back to bed for another satisfying 45mins of sleep.

I have a wonderful gf, I know.

Achievement this year: Solved Rubic's Cube

Three of my colleagues were given Rubic's Cubes as a toy/collectible/marketing widget. You now like pens, highlighters, post-its, stress-balls...

I was bored one day and picked up one of them and attempted to solve it.

And I did it in 11.75 seconds.

Just joking. I didn't do it at all. 11.75 seconds is the world record for solving the cube. I tried solving it and gave up after 10 minutes -> I had only solved one face.

I had played with the cube before, but never managed to solve it. And I wasn't happy that I couldn't solve it.

So I looked online. Trusty wikipedia... Actually had a page on "How to solve the Rubic's Cube"! Did a bit of reading and found out that its really not difficult. There are algorithms to swap pieces, say, or to "turn" a piece such that its rotated the right way etc. And there are clear steps to take to solve it.

Following instructions, I've managed to solve it in 30 minutes. Subsequently, with practice and memorising some algorithms that I otherwise wouldn't have known, I can solve the cube in 15 minutes.

If people ask me right now, what's my proudest achievement... I think I'll tell them I can solve the Rubic's cube. *victory sign*

Football again!

I played football again on Tuesday, and I've re-affirmed my hopelessness at being a goal-keeper.

You know in street-soccer (or court soccer, or indoor soccer) where the field is small and there are lacking goalkeepers (keepers are always lacking - you won't EVER find 3 of them in a court) we usually take turns to keep the goal (haha that sounds weird).

When I played in SG in the past, we usually rotate when a goal is scored/conceived. Over here its not so obvious... People just "volunteer" as and when they think they should be keeper.

So anyway I had played for about 20mins already, had to catch my breath a bit. And the poor guy was keeper for quite some time, so I volunteered.

Soon after, I conceived a goal. And then another. and another. and another. and finally one more, before one of the players decided that I was crap, and took over as keeper. All that happened in a span of maybe 5 minutes. Just to clarify, I wasn't intentionally trying to get substituted.

But that suits me just fine. =)

And I'm happy that I've used my new boots three times this year.

Luckily we have 5 weekdays...

"Luckily we have 5 weekdays ... ", my colleague was saying. In my mind I was already completing the sentence, "... instead of 6 in certain countries."

But no, what he continued saying I would never guess.

"... to rest from the 2 days of weekend."

Haha seriously that is damn funny. In case you didn't know, recently it has got really quiet. Not quiet as in not noisy quiet - its more like there was seriously nothing to do.

But still I'd never expect my colleague to say that. Everyone who was within earshot (only me and another guy) burst out laughing.

Ideal job heh?

Football.

I love sports, but I love football best of all. Felt so excited today, for the whole day, because I knew I was going to play football later in the evening. I felt so alive!

The last time I played football was I think two months ago. Wow that feeling was even better. I felt excited for 2 whole days before the game!

It was 5 on 5, street soccer style, the way I liked it. Small pitch, big goals, which resulted in a fast-paced game with many goals scored. Tight spaces, which means tight dribbling. Few people, which means more one-twos (its a passing play where player one passes to player two, who passes it back immediately to player one, who usually has sprinted forward).

Though it was only 40 minutes, it was a superb game. I loved it. Esp when somebody commented, "you're pretty good" after the game, while we were re-hydrating and cooling down. Hee...


By the way, this is a little out of point. Actually, totally out of point. I dropped my left contact lens on the toilet floor this morning. And I spent 30 minutes looking for it. And I can't find it.

Luckily I kept my old contact lenses as a spare...

What do you think of the middle east crisis?

A colleague asked me that very open-ended question. I usually answer very open ended questions with "huh?".

He elaborated, "Who do you think is responsible?"

"Responsible for the crisis?"

Another colleague interrupted, "Well, you have to go back to who started it right? Its Hezbollah."

"Depends on how far back you go", the colleague that originally asked the question said.

-- lots of stuff about the whole middle east affair, involving iran, syria, etc etc.. finally a lull in the conversation...

"So, how far back would you go?" I asked the colleague that orginally asked the question.

"Moses."

"Moses?"

"Yeah when he parted the red sea."

"Moses is dead! How can you still hold him responsible?"

"Maybe he's not dead."

... I left it at that.

Am I supposed to be used to the weather?

The temperature went to 34 today. Blardy hot. A colleague from France asked me, "Aren't you used to it already?"

I've spent 21 years in Singapore, where the weather is always blardy hot. AND blardy humid. After so long, you'd think that I've gotten used to it.

But no, I'm not used to it. I'd still prefer 24 degree weather with about 30 percent humidity.

One of those chain-blog things again.

Favourites
Colour: Blue, Black, White and blends of those colours. Actually since Black and White aren't colours, its just blue.
Food: Depending on situations, I like Hainanese Chicken Rice, Laksa, Wan Tan Mee, Roti Prata, Carrot Cake (white), Satay, Pengkang Fish, a nice thick beef Steak (preferably Rib-eye, Sirlion, Fillet) ...
Song: Don't have a favourite one...
Movie: Hard to say. I don't tend to watch movies again and again... But I like action/sci-fi movies like Independance Day, MIB, X-men etc.
Sport: Football aka Soccer
Day of the week: Saturday
Season: Late Spring/Early Summer
Ice cream: Cold Stone's Strawberry Cheesecake Paradise (or something - contains cheesecake ice-cream, strawberries, and graham crunch)

Currents
Mood: Tired but relaxed (went to the gym a few hours ago)
Taste: None (not eating at the moment).
Clothes: Shorts. Thats it.
Desktop: Eh heh. I'm proud of my desktop. So proud that I'm going to show you:
Toe nail colour: Natural. Except for one toe, you know the toe that got stubbed. The nail dropped out finally and now there's a new nail forming. But like newborn babies, new nails look really ugly. Its not smooth and pink. Its very wrinkled, with spots of dark purple (possibly dried blood).
Surroundings: Quiet small cosy bedroom, with the window slightly ajar, the door closed.
Annoyance: None?
Thoughts: Thinking about what I'm thinking at the moment. The fact that I'm actually thinking about what I was thinking probably means I wasn't thinking of anything. Or maybe I'm thinking about what I was thinking. haha.

Firsts
Best friend: My neighbour who went to the same primary school as I. Our parents used to compare our grades (though there wasn't much sense comparing since in Pri 1 the grades are always > 98).
Crush: Some girl in my neighbourhood. Her name was Cheryl (not the Cheryl in the same class as I - its another Cheryl!). I was 8, she was 7. Unfortunately she moved out about a year after and I was too young to ask for her phone number. Hey wait.. that's almost 20 years ago!!!
Movie: Don't remember.
Lie: Lied about forgetting to bring my homework, when I really was too lazy to do it. Lied like this too many times.
Music: I dunno...

Lasts
Cigarette: Second hand smoke? er... yesterday.
Drink: Yesterday. Though I had something with Shaoxing wine today.
Car ride: A month ago, shared a cab back with a friend.
Crush: Excluding the gf? I have a current crush - Jessica Alba. My previous crush would be Scarlett Johanson.
Movie: Munich 1972. Good movie I must say. Watch it if you can.
Phone call: Called a colleague who didn't turn up for work and boss was concerned. Not concerned for him, concerned that he didn't turn up. He didn't pick up the phone though, so I'm not sure it counted.
Cd played: Can't remember (how sad is that?)

Have you ever:
Dated one of your best friends: Yes, the gf
Broken the law: Civil or criminal? Criminal no, but civil, possibly. You know how strict SG is, littering is against the law you know... not to mention being naked in your own home etc.
Been arrested: No
Skinny-dipped: No
Been on tv: Once also when I was in Sec 2 or so. Attended a writing course (writing as in short-story writing, not handwriting writing - though I probably need to improve on the latter) with an apparently famous SG based writer. Got reporter come and interview us. I was on TV for a few seconds.
Kissed someone you don’t know: No

5 things you are wearing: Briefs. Shorts. Ring. Left contact lens. Right contact lens. (heng, got 5 things)
4 things you did today:
- Went to work
- Went to gym
- Cooked Chinese Style Spaghetti with leftover Jamaican Jerk Chicken topped with Ham.
- Fulfilled my "duty" as a loving bf by writing this chain-blog thing
3 things you can hear right now: Breeze blowing my curtains, someone turning on his car engine, my housemate just opening her door.
1 thing you do when you’re bored: Surf the net.
5 ppl whom I want to do this thing:I don't want to trouble anyone doing this. But I hope AKK will jump at the opportunity... Otherwise, the chain (more like web actually) stops here.

Tuanging

For the sake of people who don't know what Tuanging means, it means idling, or avoiding work.

For the past three days, I was doing that. I actually signed up for this course "Advanced Equity Derivatives", hoping to learn something advanced about you know, equity derivatives. Unfortunately, it turned out to be actually "Really Basic Equity Derivatives". I already knew everything he had to teach.

On the first day, I thought, hell, its always good for someone to reinforce your learning you know... At the end of the day I thought, the instructor isn't even clear about what he's teaching - I may end up more confused.

On the second day, I thought, its 8 hours long of boring activity, but hell, its not work! I sit down and listen all day, make a couple of comments here and there, and yet get free lunch, still get paid, and I leave for home at 4! 4! can you imagine? I'd suffer through any boring lecture for that. By the end of the day though, I thought, I was just wasting my time. I could just have stayed at home and nobody would suspect I'm at home (the people at the office will assume I'm on course, the people on the course would assume i'm in the office).

On the third day, I thought, I'm a man of integrity. I should go for the course since I signed up for it, the instructor knows me now, and hell, its still better than working right? At the end of the day though, I'm glad I went for the course, because it ended at 3. 3! And we all headed to a nearby pub to "discuss some equity derivative related problems". Which of course included poker, somebody's wife, somebody else's girlfriend, snooker, over a seeming endless supply of beer.

Days like this come rarely. I do appreciate them though. =)

A small accomplishment

Today I ran in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge (Whoa its a damn good marketing event la, 13,000 people participated in the run, and everyone has to call it the JPMCCC. No-wonder you have the Barclay's premiership, the Stella Artois Tennis Open etc.)

It was quite well organised I must say. Each company had a large tent where you can put down your stuff. Plenty of access to bottled water. Lots of toilets all over the place. Water point at the halfway mark. At the end of the race got water, banana, and a T-shirt. Head back to the tent for some BBQ food. Nice, everything paid for somemore. haha.. I will prob go again next year if I'm still around. Hmm. Maybe I should sign up for 10k, or half-marathon runs. Its a good motivation to get active. YEAH!

Had to leave early though, because the run was at 6.45, and by the time I felt well enough to leave for home it was already 8. Germany was playing Italy at 8. Took me an hour to get back home. Fortunately I didn't miss much as they didn't score any goals. Unfortunately, I lost 5 quid because they didn't score any goals. Ah well, its still an overall (tax-free) profit.

Cool but stupid: Magnetic Floating Bed

Got this from gizmodo:


It reads:
"Every so often, we like to take a look at things whose functionality isn’t measured in gigabytes or megabangs, but instead just look amazing. This magnetic floating bed, I submit, may be among the coolest things we’ve ever covered. Designed by Dutchman Janjaap Ruijssenaars, it’s got enough magnets to keep 900 kilograms (1,984 pounds) floating in the air. To make sure that the bed doesn’t float away should it become windy (or “interesting,” wink wink), it’s tethered to the walls by four cables.

Technically, the magnetic floating bed is for sale, but at a price of 1.2 million euros ($1.53 million), you’re not likely to find it in your local mattress store."

Its just common sense: since the bed is already "tethered to the walls by four cables", we should just do away with the magnets and suspend it by the cables.. I'm sure it'll be much cheaper.

Its Blardy Hot!!

I know most of you guys would be pronuncing the title the Singaporean way, i.e., no intonation, no accent, just "ITS BLAARDY HOT".

But for the fun of it, lets do it the British way. Try it: "Its BLAD-y HOT!". Ah, I guess intonations doesnt get conveyed just thru the spelling of the text.

Sorry about that, I guess I got a little carried away with accents after watching this movie Matchpoint. Pretty good movie, and its not just because Scarlett Johansson is starring in it. It was based in London, where this ex-tennis player becomes a tennis coach at Wimbledon, gets aquainted with the British upper-class, gets married to this sweet girl with tons of money, then gets involved in an affair with Ms Johansson. She gets pregnant, wants him to leave his wife. He's too used to the upper-class lifestyle and isn't willing to give that up. So he kills her.

Anyway, back to the point. I hate the weather here. It really sucks. One moment ago it was so cold it snows. Another moment it gets wet. Not just wet but dull gloomy misty foggy kinda wet. And now its just blardy hot! Why? Why can't the weather be like oh sunny California, where its sunny yet cool.

I'll never settle down in London. The weather may be a convenient topic to discuss over coffee/beer, but I'd rather give that up to live somewhere nicer.

Brazil Lost...

Damn it. I had high hopes on them. and high stakes.

I lost 5 pounds on them losing to France, and 4 pounds on them not winning the world cup.

Well, at least I made up for it by guessing the right number of goals...

England lost too. Quite surprising that they played better with Rooney off and with 10 men than with Rooney on. I guess England just isn't a winning team.

Training for a 5k run...

I signed up for this JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 5k run. Just for the fun of it, and also for the free T-shirt that the company is sponsoring =). When I signed up, I felt pretty confident about it - not to win the race la, to complete it in a reasonable time.

But I haven't been running for the past 2 months? Since my toenail turned black, I had several excuses not to go running. House-moving for example, my back ached for the next two days. And then I got struck down with a cold. Slight fever, then coughing and mucus and pleghm. And then the world cup. Its like the world is against me running!

I decided that if i'm going to leave some face for myself, I'd better start moving. So on Tuesday I ran on the treadmill. I started a little too ambitious, and gave up at 2.5k. Today I ran again, and managed to complete the run, though about a minute more than my best time.

ah.. boring post eh. guess nobody's interested in me going to the gym.

But wait! interesting part comes up. I went to the gym at about 4.30pm today. The gym was quite empty. Of 10 or so treadmills only 2 were taken. However, while I was at 2.5k, this plump middle aged indian man comes to the treadmill right next to me. At first it was alright yeah, until he raised his arms to press on the buttons...

* a waft of wind catches the odour under his arm and brings it straight to me *

*breathing heavily.. puff pant... then gag...*

worse still, once he starts running, he rests his arms on top of the treadmill panel! the treadmill is pretty big, the panel comes up all the way to the chest - so his arms were f88king raised!

now, imagine a plump middle aged indian man. arms raised. sweating more heavily than you who still has another 2.5k to go. less than 1m away. with the wind from the cooler blowing air from him to you. with you not being able to help but breathe heavily.

its a nightmare i tell you.

thankfully though, the nose works in magical ways. It gets desensitised after continued exposure to the same smell... and I survived the run.

House Season 2 finale

I just finished watching House, M.D., this TV serial that is really pretty good. If you haven't seen it, its about this super brilliant doctor that's arrogant and makes himself miserable. Its a fantastic show.

I was most impressed by its season 2 finale. Dr House is shot by someone. I sort-of expected that, him being the arrogant jerk, moreover this being the finale, of course something dramatic like that will happen. But I never expected the plot to develop into something else. Can't reveal too much, otherwise it'll take the fun out of the show. But, I can tell you, straight after watching it, I went online to search out a review/ critic for that episode. Its quite simply the best TV episode I ever watched.

Watch it, you won't regret it.

P.S. Its better than the action-packed Portugal vs Netherlands match.

I blame the world cup

1. For turning me into a couch potato. I've been confined indoors, with a lounge chair, a TV and a remote.

2. For distracting me at work. I can't seem to do much between 2-4, 5-7 and 8-10 for many days and more recently from 3-5, 8-10. It seems starting today my un-productive periods will be from 4-6 and 8-10.

3. For reminding me that footballers earn shitloads of money, that some girls actually dream of becoming a footballer's wife.

4. For making me pick up spread betting. Don't mean to advertise here, but do check out betfair.com. Its like trading stocks on an exchange - the prices move up or down depending on supply/demand and of course during the current match. Being careful not to get too engrossed in gambling, I'm limiting my maximum bet size to 2 pounds, which unfortunately is also the minimum bet size on the site.

British Peculiarity

When I first came to the UK, I noticed a couple of things that was just so unusual. Most unusual of all, has to be the water taps. Every toilet you go to, on each sink, there will be two faucets - one for cold water and one for hot.

Now that doesn't make any sense to me at all. If I was to wash my face, my hands, or anything for that matter, it has to be EITHER scalding hot or icy cold. No in-between. Of course you can plug up the sink and fill it up with water - but how hygenic is that?

My current flat, though looking relatively modern, still has separate faucets. Its summer now so I'm not really complaining. But I imagine I will be quite fustrated in the winter.

Never quite understanding the difficulty in combining the two taps into one, and never quite getting used to the idea that two separate taps IS NORMAL, I looked up the net to see if at least somebody agrees with me. Here's what I found.

------------------------------------

Old-Fashioned Faucets:
Unique British Standard
By JAMES R. HAGERTY
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

From The Wall Street Journal Online

LONDON (Oct. 31, 2002) — During a wartime visit to Moscow in 1942, Winston S. Churchill discovered a marvel of modern technology: hot and cold water flowing from the same faucet.

The plumbing in the villa where he stayed as a guest of Stalin was unlike the primitive British standard of separate taps for hot and cold. Rather than having to fill up the sink to achieve the right blend, the British leader could wash his hands under gushing water "mingled to exactly the temperature one desired," as he put it in his memoirs. From then on, he resolved to use this method whenever possible.

His countrymen have been slow to take up the single-spigot cause. Most bathroom sinks in Britain still have separate hot and cold taps today, 60 years after Mr. Churchill's conversion and decades after nearly all dual taps were scrapped in the U.S. and most vanished from continental Europe. For reasons of thrift, regulations and a stubborn attachment to tradition, the British have resisted the tide of plumbing history. Even when they renovate old homes, many choose two-tap systems, and builders often install them in new, low-end housing. Separate taps account for an estimated 40% of all bathroom-faucet sales in the U.K.

"It's very strange to me," says Ayelet Langer, who moved to London from Israel last year and found two faucets mounted on the newly installed bathroom sink in her apartment. "I thought I couldn't really cope with it at first, but now I do." Worried that the water from the hot tap will scald the fingers of her one-year-old son, she washes his hands in the kitchen sink, which has a single spout.

Britons don't understand why foreigners raise a fuss over this issue. "The British are quite happy to wash their hands with cold water. Maybe it's character-building," says Simon Kirby, managing director of Thomas Crapper & Co., a maker of bathroom equipment in Stratford-on-Avon.

Boris Johnson, a Conservative Party member of Parliament representing Henley, congratulates "the higher civilizations" that have adopted advanced plumbing technology. But he argues that having the choice of either hot or cold for washing hands "is an incentive to get it over and done with and not waste water."

Separate faucets are only one of the peculiarities of the British bathroom. Another is electricity — or rather the lack of it. Regulations aimed at preventing shocks forbid the installation in bathrooms of electrical outlets, except those designed for shavers. One more antishock measure bans standard on/off switches in bathrooms. The lights are controlled by pull cords hanging from the ceiling.

None of these eccentricities causes as much annoyance among foreigners as separate taps. Renee Guinivan of Bath, N.C., a retired secretary whose daughter lives in London, finds them "unsanitary." Ms. Guinivan could fill the sink with a mixture of hot and cold before washing. But what if the last person who used the sink brushed his teeth and spat? "I hate to be fussy," she says, though she is tempted to tote around a small package of Ajax cleaning powder and a sponge when she visits Britain.

"Perhaps it's something Puritanical about the English" that inclines them to shun modern luxuries, says Pam Carter, a spokeswoman for the Savoy Hotel.

In keeping with the grand style of a luxury hotel opened in 1889, the Savoy's vast white-tile bathrooms retain a Victorian look. The huge shower heads, resembling upside-down pie tins, dump cascades of water on guests. Call buttons above the tubs read "valet" and "maid" (though the buttons no longer function and guests are expected to use the telephone if they want help). To appease its largely American clientele, the Savoy has converted many of its sinks to single hot-and-cold taps, but some of the sinks retain separate faucets. Ms. Carter points to a gleaming white double-tap sink from the 1950s, large enough to bathe a midsize dog. "It would be a crime to get rid of something like that," she says.

Many in Britain keep separate bathroom taps to preserve the authenticity of Victorian homes. The force of habit also plays a role. As the commercial director of the Bathroom Manufacturers Association, Yvonne Orgill might be expected to favor frequent renovations, yet she is completely satisfied with the separate taps on her bathtub and sees no reason to replace them. "I can turn them on and off with my toes, being a lazy person" she says.

In their defense, some British cite red tape. Older British homes often have storage tanks in their attics that feed water heaters. Under certain conditions, those tanks could be contaminated — for instance, by the intrusion of a rat — and tainted hot water that flows into a mixer tap might get sucked into a cold-water pipe leading back to the public water supply, endangering the whole neighborhood. So regulations forbid mixing of hot and cold water streams inside a tap unless the tank meets strict standards or protective valves are installed.

Separate taps are also a bit cheaper. A midprice pair of chrome bathroom-sink taps from Pegler Ltd. costs about $87, or half the price of a hot-and-cold "mixer" tap of similar quality.

Even so, modernity is slowly imposing itself. British people who travel overseas often are impressed by single taps, not to mention the "lovely shower systems that blow your head off," says Kevin Wellman, operations director at the British Institute of Plumbing. A U.S. company, American Standard Cos., is now the largest supplier of bathroom equipment in Britain and promotes modern fittings, including mixer taps.

Martin Phillips, a Londoner who sells car-industry forecasts and is married to an American, says his wife has converted him. Now when he encounters a sink with separate taps, he says, "it drives me potty."

But there are many holdouts. One is Mr. Kirby, the managing director at Thomas Crapper. Of the mixer tap, he says, "I wouldn't even consider it as a modernization — just a different way of doing it."

Of course, he has a professional interest in the matter. Founded in 1861 by Thomas Crapper, the firm he runs makes replicas of Victorian bathroom equipment, including bathroom "basins," or sinks, ranging from about $1,320 to $1,875. In a rare compromise with authenticity, the company does provide some sinks with mixer taps, but those are sold mainly to overseas customers.

Mr. Kirby says he doesn't find separate taps inconvenient. He dunks his hands under the cold water tap when he wants a quick wash. "If I want to wash them properly, I put the plug in" and fill the basin, he says. Isn't that less hygienic than washing under running water? "It's a cultural difference," Mr. Kirby says. "We're less bothered about that."

Despite their clashing views on hand-washing, Mr. Kirby keeps portraits of Winston Churchill in his home and office. He isn't surprised that the prime minister liked fancy plumbing. "You have to remember that Churchill was half-American," Mr. Kirby says, "so he was probably a bit more open to some of these innovations.

--------------------------------------------

A week without Internet

Sorry about the absence. You see, after I moved, I had no access to internet. The whole process of subscribing for a line, then signing up an ISP usually took 3 or more weeks - we fast-tracked the process because there was already a line set up and we signed up for the ISP a week before we moved in.

Anyway, just to let you know I'll be updating my blog again. Soon.

A week without the internet wasn't that bad, to be honest. I guess since I had internet in the office and also since unpacking, and more recently the world cup, had me pretty busy.

Check back again soon, I promise I'll post something in the next few days.

Moving house!

Every year in London, we move house. I've lived in 4 different places already, in the 4 years that I've been in London. Come June, the tally will be 5.

When I was a student, in my first year, housing was guaranteed by the college. i.e., we had a dorm (also called a house or hall) to live in. It was relatively cheap, about 85 pounds a week - but we had to share toilet and kitchen. Living in a dorm was definitely a great experience.... but lets not digress.

In my second year I lived with four other flatmates. We rented a flat from an Egyptian landlord. The place was relatively cheap, at 400 per week, but the place was fairly run-down. The carpet and the curtains were very dirty, the heater wasn't working when we moved in, even the beds, tables, chairs were all the cheapest furniture from Argos. Worst of all, the landlord would say "Anything you want, I will give you..." But nothing he promised ever happens. We learnt not to trust dodgy Egyptians from then on. We decided to shift house the next year.

For the third year, L and I very luckily found a superbly cheap place at 325 per week (for 4pple). The landlord was British, owned a few other units along the road, and didn't go through an agent to let out the flat - thus saving us the agency fee. The furniture was old, but good quality, and we pretty much loved the flat. Unfortunately, my third year was to be my last year in London...

And then as you know I went to the States for 1 year... and found a job back in London.

I didn't have much of a choice over the place I'd live for my fourth year in London. Thankfully I had a friend who'd be working in London too, so I asked him if he would accept me as a housemate. The househunting basically involved me looking at photographs of the place over email and agreeing on the conditions... I'm pretty happy with the place I'm living now, though I'm paying about 130 a week.

My newest home would be pretty good too! My rent will go up by 5 pounds a week, but I guess its worth it, for the nicer toilet, kitchen, and humongous lounge. I'll post some pictures when I move in.

Answers to the personality quiz...

If you haven't done the quiz yet, please see this post first.


** Warning! Spoiler for the quiz in question ahead. If you really don't want to do the quiz before reading, its your own fault! **


The rabbit in the quiz represents love, and the key represents your career. the bridge/river is an obstacle. thats it.

My story was that I was holding a key and crossing the bridge when a cute rabbit jumped up, took the key away from me and hopped across the bridge. You can interpret it either as I gave up my career for love, or that my love interest helped me with my career. haha.

I got another friend whose bf told her the story was: He was holding this very cute rabbit, crossed the bridge, and exchanged the rabbit for the key. haha, upon being informed that the rabbit represents her, he changed his answer and said he exchanged the key for the rabbit. glib tongue neh?

Yet another story I heard was that she was carrying the key across the bridge, when she saw this cute bunny swimming in the river. She ignored the rabbit and walked on. haha.

i think this quiz is so cute.

Soccer, after one whole year.

Never thought I'll get a chance to play football (soccer) again, but yesterday my colleague asked me to join him and his HK friends to play. I was so happy that I went down to Lillywhites and bought a brand new pair of astro turf boots just for that.

I thought it was a 40min game initially. We all thought it was. So we went all out.

40 mins later, nobody chased us away so we continued playing. Before we knew it, we had played almost 3 hours! At the end we were so tired we couldn't even walk properly. I suffered several blisters (blame it on the new shoes), and a black toe.

Before the game:














After the game:



























Actually I took the above pictures at the same time. The top picture is my right foot. Yeah, I know I have two left feet...

Little personality/life quiz...

I don't know if we can call it a quiz. You know when somebody asks you this sort of question "you're walking along a path in a forest when the path branches into two. do you take the left fork or the right fork?" if you answer left you're so and so and if you answer right you're so and so...

well i've got a similar question. you can either jot your answers down in the comments or mentally. i'll reveal the answers in about a week.

Question.
Form a story using your imagination and creativity using the following nouns:
River
Bridge
Rabbit
Key
Yourself (i.e., "Me" or "I")

Have fun!

Ba1-Shi2

Ba1 shi2 means eighty in Mandarin. its also a very complicated bridge-like game.

You know how people like to modify games when it gets too boring? well, i think bridge has the most modifications... lets see, besides the normal fixed partner bridge, there's floating partner bridge, german bridge, spades, and now bashi...

its damn complicated. i will not be able to note down all the rules here. like bridge, there are 4 players, 4 suits, and the same kind of trumping process. but thats where the similarity ends. Besides playing with 2 sets of cards instead of 1, there's a trump number (that changes almost every round) in addition to the trump suit, there're jokers, and you can play more than one card at a time. further, you don't just try to win sets, you neet to win "points", and points are just 5s, 10s and Ks.

thats just the gist of it. of course there's more to it, including the number of points you need to "shang4 tai2" (climb onto the platform)... it took me 15 minutes of listening and two/three rounds before i could manage to play it - but even then I was still very blur and inexperienced and caused my partner to lose a few times...

anyway, i played with a bunch of friends from 6pm. and the game wasn't completed until 11pm. and we didn't have dinner. so i'm starving right now.

but its very fun. i don't mind spending my sundays playing cards...

The cutest girl I met, ever.

I'm risking making my gf jealous with this post...

*****************************

Today I had dinner with a super cute girl. She pointed at my head and said, "Your hair, your hair..."

uh huh?

"so messeeeeeeee!"

haha, i guess its true, my hair was a little messy. But the way she said it was soo cute, I didn't feel upset at all.

"Very messy meh?" I asked her seriously...

She shook her head this time. haha.

Throughout the whole dinner she'd keep me smiling: like when she pointed at the fish and said, "I don't like that"; or when she told me she went up to tower bridge (didn't actually go up, as I found out in the end).

The best part of all, was when we left dinner. She said, looking coyly at my feet, "Thank you for joining me."

*oh* , so cute.


****************************


she's 3 years old, by the way, and I had dinner with her parents.

I think I hate myself.

I'm such a lazy bum. Given the time and space, I'll just sit at home and rot all day. I'll consider doing laundry as doing something.

I'm such a bad socialite. I can't keep up conversations for long, and I'm super damn uninteresting, i think. If you put two of me together, they'd probably run out of things to say in 3 minutes...

I give up easily. I don't fight for the things I want... which brings me to another point...

I don't really know what I want.

I think I'm in a quarter-century crisis...

Pros and Cons of 24 degree celcius weather

Pros:
- It feels warm enough to not wear a jacket.
- The sun is usually shining. I love the sun.
- The surface area of female skin exposed usually goes up in correlation with the weather. This is never a bad thing.

Cons:
- The gym stinks...

New York Trip

I was at NY for a week, on a "business" trip. It wasn't really a business trip of course, since I didn't do any business, but it was paid for by my bank. Cool huh?

For the first time in my 26 years of life, I sat First Class on a long-haul flight (not exactly that long either, cus it was only about 7 hr flying time...). Man, it was so exciting. Now I know what priviledged means...

But enough about the flight, lest you people start thinking I'm bragging... haha..

New York was s-p-l-e-n-d-i-d!

You know how it snows in NY but not London? So I assumed that NY would be colder than London. The weather over here was starting to get warmer, but still required a fleece jacket. Naturally I thought I should bring an overcoat to NY.

BUT, when I exited the airport, instead of the dreary cold weather I was expecting, I found sunshine and a nice cool breeze! Yoohoo!

The good weather persisted all the time for the entire 7 days I was there. How can the weather be so good for so long? Had I gotten so used to London???

I spent the weekend by myself in Manhattan. And guess what I did?

I walked down to Central Park, found a nice patch of green grass, took off my shirt and photosynthesized (vitamin D and melanin that is).

There were a couple of times when I thought to myself "life is good...". Once was when I was in the California sunshine, driving this huge-ass SUV with my gf beside me.

This time in Central Park, I found myself thinking again, "life is good". In case I hadn't told you before, that was one of the most pleasurable things in life (in my opinion of course): Lie in the sun on a patch of green grass with a Jamba Juice (really nice fruit smoothie) in hand.

== on a side note ==
there are a couple of things which I deem to be really enjoyable (not exhaustive list)
- hanging out with a bunch of good friends at a beach BBQ.
- lying on the sand/grass/air mattress at a beach/park/pool under the sun with a nice cool drink. a partner to share the joy would be highly desired as well...
- soaking in a hot tub / jacuzzi (again the cool drink and partner would be nice to have) at a spa or resort
- snowboarding followed by a nice hearty steak and wine
===

hmm.. come to think of it, I've sort of done all of the above. Except the air mattress part...

The only regret in that trip was that I was alone.

"Rone-ry, I'm so rone-ry..." (its one funny song from the show Team America)

Man, I could go on and on about the trip, I think I'll reserve more for later. Seeya!

Will be gone for a week.

Just so you know that I might not be updating my blog... Hopefully I'll post some pictures when I get back.

Silhouette

Just a picture I like...

Did you know that HSBC prints HK notes?

I didn't know that. I always thought it was the "Bank of Hong Kong" or the "Monetary Authority of Hong Kong" or some Govt organisation/authority that printed the notes. Today though, I got a chance to see a 10,20 and 50 denominated HKD.

"Why are there Lions on all of them?" I asked.

"Oh, because these are HSBC notes." was the reply I got.

"HSBC notes? they print notes??"

"Yes."

"WHAT?!?! they really print notes? thats amazing! its like the government of HK then!"

"Yeah, I suppose."

-- at this point i was really stunned. I am imagining myself being the Chair of HSBC and ordering them to print a million, HECK, a trillion HKD and then declare the bank as having a profit of a trillion. my bonus will be FAT... ---

"so are there any other banks that print notes in HK?"

"yup, there are three, HSBC, Bank of China and Standard Chartered"

!!!

At once I made a mental note to blog this down and share this new exciting information with you all.

"So, do they all look different?"

"Yes, they are all different." he looks through his bag of notes to find an example, but he doesn't have any non HSBC HKD.

----

but now back home, i did a bit of research on the web (amazing isn't it, the net?) and found out that the three banks are called Note Issuing Banks. They have some agreement with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), and under some fixed exchange rate policy, they can redeem or issue HKD at the price of 1 USD for 7.8 HKD... So unfortunately, there's no free money here..

But the hard peg sounds a bit dodgy, and another look on the web tells me that that policy was true before May 2005, but it has been recently unpegged from the USD.. hmm.. why don't somebody explain that?

The silver lining

If you've read my previous blog post, you'll know I had a failed Brighton trip. So instead of going back home and crying out our eyes, we decided to not let that incident spoil our day and have our own fun.

We went to West Hampstead for lunch. There's this small but nice little cafe, called the "Wet Fish Cafe" that XP recommended. The food and drinks were unique, to say the least.

We shared crab omelette, lemongrass sea-bream, chorizo with mash, some kinda pancake thing, and tomato lentil soup. There was also this nice fizzly beer that's made with champagne yeast (don't ask me how different yeasts affect the taste), and a wide variety of smoothies.

There was a kiwi mango and loganberry one, and a banana blueberrry lychee one... I wanted the lychee, but with kiwi and mango, so I asked if that was possible. The waitress didn't even bat an eyelid. Now, thats service...

After lunch we took a bus down to Regent's Park and walked along the canal passing through the park all the way to Camden Town. It was great! Perfect sunshine, nice green grass, walking along the canal...

We popped up to street level (the canal was like a storey down from the street) at one point and discovered this watering hole that had a huge private garden. With benches, shelters, heaters and all. On a bright sunny day like that, drinking a beer with friends in a garden is definitely a fine way to relax and to enjoy.

Then we walked back down to the canal, and within a minute we emerged at Camden Town.... You know along the way I saw a signboard, "waterways of London". I can imagine in the 1800s, one major transportation around London was the canals...

We went around shopping in Camden before we headed back, but not before we settled our dinner at Belgo's. Yep, there's a Belgos near Camden.


Pretty flowers at Regent's Park!


This is NOT the canal. Its just a pond in Regent's Park with lots of birds (ducks, swans, pigeons... think bird flu). BEAUTIFUL.


The canal that we walked along. There were lots of houses by the canal side, and lots of small canal boats were parked along the side. Saw this house with a porch facing the canal - then thought about how nice it would be to have a BBQ right there.

The angry-est day of my life..

Friday. Good friday, it was a holiday, a supposedly perfectly fine day. I had booked a car, reserved tables at popular restaurants for lunch and dinner at Brighton, and planned a perfectly wonderful car trip down.

The trip was planned to perfection, collect the car at 11 sharp, drive down about 1hr 45 min, arrive for lunch at 1pm, spend an hour an a half there, before walking around The Lanes enjoying the atmosphere, the small cobbled streets, the shopping experience, before heading up to the Royal Pavillion for some touristy stuff, and ending the walkabout with a sumptous dinner at Gingerman's, supposedly the best restaurant in Brighton.

The trip was planned to perfection, but alas, unexpected things always crop up.

First the queue was very long. I arrived at 1030, expecting to collect the car by 11. But in the end I was at the counter at 12pm.

Then the bloody agent told me that I needed my passport.

I pointed at the booking voucher and said that nowhere is it printed I need my passport.

He went behind and spoke to his manager, then came back out and said that a proof of address will do, like a utility bill of sorts.

Does anyone go around with a utility bill of sorts in your bag or wallet? Well, I obviously didn't have a proof of address, and once more explained its not printed on the booking voucher. The voucher said to bring
- Printout of the booking voucher
- Driving license
- Photographic identification
Of which I had all of them. But they still wanted a passport or a utility bill.

I was angry of course, and I tried all sorts of means to convince them. Call my bank, I suggested, here's my friend's bill, I suggested. I'll pay more for my deposit. The manager refused to budge.

I asked her why she was so obstinate.

She said she'll lose her job if she allowed me to take the car.

I asked her, "do you think I'll steal the car?"

She said, in a very patronising tone, "I don't mean to be derogatory, sir, but there's such thing as theft."

F**king b*tch. It was an incredible feat I managed to keep my cool and not give her one tight slap.

I complained about waiting an 90 minutes just to get told that I don't have the documentation.

She said her agents have been working here since 8am.

I said thats their job.

She said don't interrupt. She said I held back her agent and I'm wasting their time when they could serve other customers.

I said I only held her agent for 5 minutes, and how long have they been holding me up?

She said she and her team have turned back many people without the proper documentation, that people like that have been wasting their time and holding the queue.

I said perhaps thats because it isn't properly specified that we need a passport or a proof of address. If that was so then everything would run smoothly.

She said that its specified in the terms and conditions.

I said it was fine print, who would read it.

She said its not fine print. Its 8 pages long.

8 pages long! who'll read 8 pages of terms and conditions to rent a car, I said.

She said if I read it I would have brought the documents.

Anyway, by then I was so exasperated at her and her obstinate logic that I decided to stop talking to her. Talking to her was like talking to a wall, except that this wall made your blood boil.

In the end we called off the whole trip. Went for lunch at west hamstead and walked around regent's park and camden town instead. I didn't get a refund of course.

I've never been so pissed with somebody in my life. Never been met with such rubbish customer service.

I swear I'll write in to complain. I'll keep up the complaints until something satisfactory is done. I don't even want my money back. I've got her name down. She's going down...

I passed...

just to let you know.

Unnecessary pressure to pass...

I've got this regulatory exam tomorrow that I HAVE to pass. Not because my boss expects me to, not because I have to pay for it, and not because I don't get another chance to take it again.

Its because one of my collegues have been going around saying,
"Hey this guy's from Stanford! He's gotta pass!"

Another guy announces loudly,
"Hey we all passed it, you'll DEFINITELY pass."

AND, he goes around telling everyone around me that I'm doing the exam tomorrow.

Guy A continues by saying, "There're only two excuses to fail. One, you're stupid. Two, you don't know English... " and he went on saying how I am a genius, and how some people around the floor don't really know English etc...

Thing is, I never really understood the pressure of passing, and passing for peer recognition just seems like the wrong reason...

And the fact that this regulatory exam is all about memory AND language, two of my weakest aspects, isn't helping at all...

Sigh.. I'm going to be a laughing stock if I fail...

Singapore misunderstandings...

I was having a conversation with a French guy who just joined. He has a very interesting sense of humor. The conversation went like this..

he: "Do you swim?"

me: "Yeah, a little. But I mostly swim in Singapore, not here. There aren't any decent sized swimming pools in London."

"Yeah. And they're dirty."

"Well, not really that dirty... but the ones in Singapore are cleaner."

"Yes, I'd bet. You can't even fart in the swimming pool right?"

"Yup. They added some kinda chemical in the pool. When you fart the chemical turns purple..."

"uh huh, and the lifeguard will pull out a machinegun and rat-tat-tat..."

"..."

"The police isn't very funny in singapore right?"

(not sure how to reply) "yeah, they're not really funny." (i mean, how funny can they get? imagine going up to them and telling them a joke, you think they'll laugh?)

"You can't even chew chewing gum right?"

(why does it always have to go to chewing gum??)
"No. you can chew it, just that you can't buy them in singapore" - elaborate a little more on the technicalities...

"So, is it allowed to kiss and hug in public?"

(!?!?!!)

"Yes, it is allowed..." (then an image of a couple snogging on the bus comes to mind.. zoom out a bit and you see a few aunties sitting behind them shaking their heads and "tsk-ing" away)

"oh because I read somewhere that it wasn't allowed... oh maybe thats malaysia"

"yeah perhaps. they do have some conservative muslims in some states"

"so what about the people in singapore?"

"well, we have about 70% chinese, 20% malay, 10% indian" (eh rough estimate la, don't correct me..)

"so what are you?"

"... I'm Chinese."

"Chinese? Chinese?"

"Yes."

"You don't look Chinese. You seem too fair to be Chinese. Don't you agree? Like B, he's darker."

(yup, i'm pale...)
"Yeah I guess. So what do I look like?"

"Korean"

Stereotypes, racism

I interviewed a couple of students considering a summer internship a few days ago. Of course I went with a very open mind.

The first guy was a Chinese. His English wasn't very good, but his grades in the technical subjects were straight As. "Soft" courses like "Organisational Management" were the only flaws in his grades.

The second guy was Italian. Long hair, nice proper suit that fitted him, modern looking tie, he almost looked like he was a model. He sat back in his chair and gave a sort of "hey I know I'm good looking, I deserve a job" kinda look...

The third guy was Polish. He wore gold rimmed glasses and an ill-fitted jacket that looked so past-era, like it was his father's. I'm guessing he got his inspiration for his hair from his father too.

The fourth guy was Indian. Plump and chubby cute sort of way. He talked in a slightly high-pitched tone (almost to the point of sounding like a child) and was very enthusiastic and chirpy. Very entertaining...

The fifth was Swedish. Tall, blond, light blue eyes, with a nice suit (not as nice as the Italian), and spoke very pleasantly. Very presentable.

Now, my job as an interviewer is to judge the skills and potential, not the looks or race. and definitely NOT to stereotype. BUT its so blindingly obvious.

The Chinese guy deserves a more technical role, the Italian deserves a client-facing role, the Polish guy should be placed far away from clients, the Indian I don't know, and the Swedish as a presenter.

DAMN IT.. its so hard not to stereotype people!

*********

That brings me to racism. At what point is it considered racism? I seem to have many friends who sort of expect to have Japanese chefs at Japanese restaurants. Is that being racist? Isn't that pre-judging that Indians can't cook just as well?

Interviews...

Although I'm a recent joiner to the bank, I have been interviewing a couple of people already, thanks to my boss. I'm glad to have this opportunity to interview people. After all, i'm already thinking of leaving and its good to know the different criteria on how a new recruit is judged; hopefully I can ace my next interview =)

Zen Nano Plus

I bought an MP3 player while I was over there. Always kinda wanted one, but I just couldn't justify buying one, since I hardly listen to music and I probably won't use it at all.

In the end I managed to convince myself why I should get one, reason being: the music they play in the gym is just atrocious. and it seems the staff there can't be bothered to change the CD at all. after months of listening to the same few tracks, I decided enough is enough.

I got Lu-En to help me load it up with a couple of new songs that she got from her housemate - turned out mostly to be Jay Chou. I'm not complaining, I like his songs too.

I listened to the music at the airport, while waiting to board the plane, while in the plane waiting to take off, while the entertainment system was switched off, while waiting to get off the plane, while queuing up to pass through customs, while waiting for my luggage, while taking the train/tube back ... you get the idea. I never thought I would be using it so much, heh but now I really do enjoy listening to music while waiting/travelling.

but then i noticed a problem. in the tube or near the road, the noise is really quite loud - i had to turn up the volume of the player in order to hear the music clearly. obviously, thats not the best solution... so i bought a pair of earphones that plugs into the ears, isolating the noise from the music. and now i'm much happier, listening to music thats just as loud as I want it to be.

i've also used it in the gym, the justification in the first place for buying it.

i love my player =)

The Irony

When you're happy, you wish time would come to a standstill; when you're sad you hope that time would quickly pass and heal all wounds... Yet when you're happy time passes by so fast; when you're sad the going is slow...

***

Anyway, to find out what I was doing in California, you can simply visit my other half's website.

I also bought a Creative Zen Nano Plus. Wah damn long name... they really should simplify the names a bit. More on that next time.

Sigh... The end of another glorious holiday.

Life has been too good this past week. Sigh...

Flying to CALIFORNIAAAA!!!!

Guys, I'm going over to the States to visit my gf. We'll be going snowboarding for 3 days, a bit of eating at various places, and san francisco for a whole day of sightseeing. :D

I'm grinning from ear to ear :D

Won't be updating my blog for at least a week, just so you know.

Disillusioned

Did I mention that as I grew older i got more cynical? Well, I think I just got older again.

There's been some big reorganisation where I work. My boss's boss got placed into some unknown position, the whole department got absorbed into another department, and the head of one of the groups got replaced. We've basically been taken over. From behind.

So the new boss came in today and gave a talk. He started by saying "my main message is one of reassurance. Nothing is going to change. We recognise this is one of the main businesses. We are going to maintain this business. this is my main point i want to make..." and went on for another 5 minutes.

Err.. hello? we're not stupid? we get the point you're trying to make BUT your point doesn't make sense. If nothing is going to change then why the reorganisation?

then another new boss chimed in and tried to reassure us again. he mentioned something about other restructuring was mainly done to fix broken businesses, this is done to further grow the profits.

somehow this sounds vaguely familiar to "its not your fault, its mine..." when a couple breaks up, or to "you're not ugly, you're unique".

And then after they finished speaking, of course there were a few thinly concealed hostile questions. and then the new boss started admitting that there will be seating changes etc, there will be movements, there will be displacements.

Er... didn't you just reassure us nothing is going to change? seems everybody in the room was diplomatic enough not to mention that.

Best of all, one of the managers, one of us who's getting a new boss, said to the new boss, "this may sound banal, but I think I am saying this for all of us, including the management team, that you have our support, 100%"

I left the room feeling disgusted. One, there's this backstabbing at the highest level, for own personal gain, yet veiled as though it is for the "alignment of the bank". Two, this manager has just performed a textbook example of this saying in Chinese "jian4 feng1 shi3 duo4" (change the sail according to the wind) that I don't really know how to say in English. Well, I've never seen it at this level.

My eyes are opening wider.

I'm lucky to be a small fry...

Moral Compass

There was a time when I thought everything was either right or wrong. As I grew up, I learnt that was not the case, and slowly became more jaded and cynical. Nowadays, I just brush aside any consideration of morality, especially when it doesn't concern me.

I think thats a good thing, not judging people. Thing is, I'm wondering if I'll ever judge myself.

I haven't had any moral/ethical issues to deal with, so I wouldn't know. I'm just wondering if something come up, would I be lost?

ahh.. I'm busy, let me continue with my TV.

Weather here...

They say in London, if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute - it will change.

Well, thats not exactly true. You'll usually have to wait a week. Its been sub-zero for the past week, but its getting warmer now, thankfully.

Its weird though... it was sunny last week, but yet so cold. Its raining now, but its much warmer. Given a choice, would you pick sunny but cold or raining but warm (well, i mean warm as in 12 degrees celsius)?

Its a tough choice I think. If I'm indoors, i'd prefer sunny but cold. if i'm outdoors without an umbrella, sunny but cold. if I'm outdoors with an umbrella, raining but warm. if i'm playing soccer, sunny but cold. ah.. i'm crappy eh.

my point is the weather here is weird. I knew it was going to get warmer this week, but I didn't expect it to get wetter as well. *sigh*

Yellow

There's this guy in the office that loves to fool around, joke, and discuss random things. Today he asked me, what does my surname mean? Seriously I didn't think it meant anything, but I told him it meant "Yellow".

He kept laughing away. And basically told everyone around him "Did you know his surname means yellow?" and started laughing again...

I wasn't offended but i don't see what's so funny.. i mean, there are funnier surnames right, like White, Black, or I dunno.. Bush?

For hunn =P

Reading Hunn's blog made me realise how badly I express myself...

1) Coolness of Ipods. I think pple think its cool, which is why they buy it. you think pple think its a good player with good software. i disagree with you there. itunes isn't good software, its chains that bind you to apple. Honestly I've considered getting an ipod, but thinking that i HAVE to use itunes put me off at once. of course not all pple think like me, just my personal opinion.

There are much better players out there, sony, creative, iriver, samsung etc, with longer battery life, larger memory, less restrictions, more functionality (like voice recording, more format playback etc)... yet ipods have the lion's share of the market. they command a higher price with less value. and if it isn't the coolness factor, then why is it that every product that tries to be cool has an "i" attached to the front of it?

2) ah, by "easy" i didn't mean the opposite of difficult. I really meant "unoffending", or to put it another way, "palatable". its easy in the sense that it puts you at ease. you can't find fault with what the other party is saying. it fills in the awkward silences.

3) ah that question was because i was thinking of buying a colleague some breath fresheners...

4) ...

5) Well, you shouldn't reject a colleagues' offer to go for coffee right? ESPECIALLY when she's chio, not to mention there are TWO of them.

hey i'm just joking aight?

6) whatever works for you dude..

Cambridge

I decided to do something more constructive during the weekend, instead of rotting at home watching serials like I did the last weekend. So I went up to cambridge and paid an old friend a visit.

The weather was great. Well actually, the weather looked great, but didn't really feel great. It was sunny, BUT windy and cold. Took a few pictures here and there just to show that "hey, i'm in cambridge again!" but they weren't spectacular.

Walked around the city center with no particular aim in mind. finally after i was like 25 pounds poorer, I decided it was too cold, so I suggested going back to his place and chill (not literally of course, I was cool enough).

he showed me a couple of videos, most notably the euro cup last year where liverpool won the trophy. they were 3-0 down and managed to come back up, miraculously, and won thru a hairs breadth with the penalty shootout. man they were lucky, no wonder SC's so superstitious.

it was nice just hanging out, and recalling all those fond memories of the past. and the best memory, it seems, was the rotterdam cycling trip, where everyone had some sort of accident/near accident that is just hilarious.

and now, picture time:

The back of SC's cute little home


SC's cute little car


We felt like eating stir fried beef hor fun after briefly looking at Hunn's blog. So we decided to get the closest thing to that we could find -> Gyu something Udon (beef stir fried udon).



I had this instead. Looks like, and tastes like beef chow mein.

and finished off with a pint of Asahi beer. pretty nice beer i must say.

pity i didn't take pictures of lunch. it was good too.. mm hmm..