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 =)