One year ago, when I retired my old 6610 and bought a new phone, I was over the moon with the new purchase. Alas, the phone (a Nokia 6280) did not live up to expectations. In my short 1 year stint with it, it has broken down twice and made me spend countless hours waiting at the Nokia Service Centre. The latest problem was that the speaker was not working. For the past 1 or 2 months, I have been fiddling with my handsfree set or talking on the loudspeaker.

Last saturday, I finally got my new phone. Something new for a change and a Sony Ericsson K810 to play with. The functions are cool with its 3.2 megapixel camera with all the frills of a normal digital camera. To top it all off, it looks damn good as well. :-). Still trying to get a hang of using it for messaging and trying to manoevure my fat fingers around the keys but I am certainly very excited!

I am addicted

Yes, my friends, I am officially addicted to Zara shirts. Was out shopping on Tuesday and I think I tried a grand total of about 10 shirts. I am actually already a proud owner of 2 zara shirts and am glad to add another one on Tuesday.

The shirts are pretty pricey at 90 bucks a piece but I must say the quality is pretty good and the design are smart and current. Am keen to try Massimo Dutti and Charles Tywritt as well....now I am having an oversupply of shirts :-) Not that I am complaining.

It's Over

Yup, the agony is finally over. Six gruelling hours of exams is finally behind and it's definitely a weight off my chest. The exam was ok, I thought I tried my best so I have no regrets. Saw quite a few friends at the examination hall as well.

Now the exams is finally over, there is so much to look forward to. Finally a break from studying every weekend! :-)

Final Lap

6 months ago, I was busy preparing for my CFA level 1 exam. 6 months on, never would I expect to go through this torture again. Yes, the adventure has not stopped and the worse thing is this time the stuff are much more tougher and there are so many things to read and remember.

I have been studying non-stop for the past 1 year. Really can't wait for this exam to be over and hopefully take a 6 months break before embarking on another adventure.

One more week to go and I will be free. :-) Wish me luck! I need plenty of it.

PS: Apologies to everyone for not updating this hogwash for so long. :p

43 days...

We had started a new streak after our 22 days and 12 days streak and it started on the 30th of March and ended on the 11th of May. A total of 43 days!

It was unfortunate that we had to end the streak but I guess it's for the best!

:-)

May Day

Haiz...May Day has come and gone...have to wait for the end of the month for the next public holiday.

Anyway, it was still good break from work but unfortunately most of the day was spent studying. Am in panic mood already since it's one month and one day more to go before the exam day. I am still pretty lost by a lot of the concepts and definitely need to work harder. Thus I have already decided to take 1 week leave in 2 weeks' time to concentrate full time on it. Wish me Luck!

Anyway, May Day was good in general and I manage to get a massage as well. Not really very friendly but overall it was good. I have too much chronic pains and thus it was a good relief. :-)

Dinner was spent at Katong eating Ampang Yong tau foo...simple pleasure in life.

Invincible!

My colleague passed me this movie "Invincible", an inspirational movie about how one overcame the toughest odd to succeed. Somehow this movie did not make it to Singapore probably due to Singaporean's unfamiliarity with the sport even with Mark Wahlberg as the lead actor.

The sport concerned is American football and the story begins with a bartender, Vincent Papale who had always dreamed of playing for his beloved Philadephia Eagles. In America, in order to play professional sports, you have to go through the ranks i.e. to go through college, play for your college and get selected by the professional teams. However Papale never did that.

The Eagles were a faltering team in the 70s and it was only when new coach Dick Vermeer came in and he decided to hold a trial for anyone to try out for his team. Papale impressed and was selected for the team. As a member of the special team, he was famous for intercepting a punt and scoring a touchdown playing against the Giants.

The movie highlighted that nothing is impossible in this world! For those who are interested in the movie, do get it from me. :-)

I still have another American football movie to watch and it's also another inspirational one starring Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox called We are Marshall!

Busy, Busy

It's been a busy April thus far. Work has been increasingly like crazy and now my portfolio is left only me and another colleague. It gets me thinking whether it is sustainable working in this line for long. I know friends working in various sectors and most of them are having problems coping with work stress as well.

Somehow, the pace in Singapore is always to cheong and get as far ahead as possible in terms of career and make as much money as possible. For me, coming from my background, money is definitely important but I guess I have a new priority in life. To be able to balance one's career and personal life is never easy and definitely one has to take sacrifices to reach a balance point.

Not sure why I am grunting about this when in fact the civil service is raising our pay. Let's just say I am quite satisfied with my current state and I have no complains. The key question will come when my bond ends in 3 years time and that's when I need to make the crunch decision.

Alright enough grumbling for now! Any comments are welcome.

Bangkok!

Had a wonderful weekend at Bangkok last week. The 2 photos should be enough to describe my trip. :-)We spent the 2 days at Banyan Tree and am I impressed. Actually after their hotel experience, I can't wait to spend it in their resort either in Phuket or Bintan.

Did quite a bit of shopping as well, including going to Pinky Tailor to make some shirts. Am fully stock now with 5 new shirts and 2 pants! :-)

Ah....now awaiting my next holiday....

PS: More photos available upon request. :-)

Gotcha! Part 2

Gotcha once again! Just to clarify that I did not go to the Falklands recently :-)

At least the hard work is paying off.

Cat out of the Bag!

Another cryptic message here...

Music & Lyrics

Managed to catch the Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore's movie over the weekend. I must say the storyline really suck big time. Very poorly stringed together and somehow it felt that the writers had lots of great ideas and were forcefeeding it into the movie.

However, there are lots of pluses on the movie as well. Firstly the acting were genuine and sincere. Not going did Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore stand out, Brad Garrett (more popularly known as Raymond's brother on Everybody Loves Raymond) and Kirsten Johnson (the tall chick from 3rd Rock from the Sun - and man she has really put on weight) were outstanding.

The bonus of this movie were the songs. I was surprising impressed by Hugh Grant's singing. Most of the songs were very well-written and the songs are really stuck in my head. I reproduced the lyrics of Hugh Grant's Don't Write Me Off Just Yet:

It’s never been easy for me
To find words that go along with a melody
But this time there’s actually something on my mind
So please forgive these few brief awkward lines
Since I met you my whole life has changed
It’s not just my furniture you’ve re-arranged
I was living in the past but somehow you’ve brought me back
And I haven’t felt like this since before Frankie said relax
And now I know based on my track record
I might not seem like the safest bet
All I’m asking you is
Don’t write me off just yet
For years I’ve been telling myself the same old story
That I’m happy to live off my so-called former glories
But you’ve given me a reason to take another chance
Now I need you despite the fact that you’ve killed all my plants
And now I know that i’ve already blown more chances
Than anyone should ever get
All I’m asking you is don’t write me off just yet
Don’t write me off just yet…

Batam!

Apologies for the late posting. I had my yearly divisional retreat at Batam this year (really missed the company of last year and our eating bonaza). Had to wake up super early to catch the ferry and we only managed to reach the resort at 9am so as to maximize our time there.

Did the usual discussion about our workplan and it was a quick one as everyone was raring to go for the leisure section. We started with go-karting straight after the discussion. It was a hot afternoon but I think everyone enjoyed the adrenaline in such high speeds. Probably helped me lost some weight as well. :-)

Lunch was pretty sucky but the massage was really good (Am looking for a better one when I go to Bangkok at the end of the month). And that's marks the end of the retreat. Pretty rush in a sense but it was great getting out of the country!

Time really flies. I am going to mark my 2nd anniversary working soon.

Show time!

Yes, the past 2 weeks had been super hectic preparing for the budget debate but it's finally showtime tomorrow. Our current timing is from 1pm to 4pm. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and can celebrate! For faithful readers, let me know if you want to see the speech I wrote after tomorrow.

Am looking forward to the end of the ordeal.. Batam awaits this Friday :-)

12 Days and counting....

Yes, 12 days on and still counting....let's just hope it will never end!

Update: Correction - The streak has extended to 15 days already :-)

Update 13/03/07: The streak has ended at 22 days!

Aftermath of the Budget

Today marks officially the beginning of the end. A total of 26 "cuts" for this year for our budget debate. A near 100% increase from last year. The next few days will be very painful. I shall not even think about it!

Gotcha!

Been sifting the internet to find this famous headline in 1982 when Britain capture back the Falkland Islands.

Here it is:Need I say more :-)

Crunch Time

Ok, the budget has been announced. Crunch time for the rest of the civil service now. A hectic 4 days of getting questions and another week of busy preparing for replies. The year certainly fly past and soon the end of the road is near!

Onward march!

Happy Friendship Day and...

Happy Friendship Day to everyone. For those who have their special someone, Happy Valentine's Day!

Chinese New Year beckons!

Revival of Chinese Movies

Managed to watch 2 Chinese movies over the past weekends and I must say I am quite impressed. Most of the time, I do not bother going to the theatre to watch Chinese movies as they are shown on tele quite quickly normally after about a year.

Incidentally both movies I caught were in Cathay and starred Louis Koo.

The first was Happy Birthday. A romantic and touching movie about a couple who had an on-and-off relationship over the past 20 years. They became apart during their studies but somehow still manage to maintain a close relationship. The movie ended with a dramatic twist and I guarantee that it would make any girl weep (pls note :-))

The second movie was the Protege. A local production starring international stars such as Andy Lau, Daniel Wu and of course Louis Koo. The story revolves around a drug cartel fronted by Lau and him looking for a protege to look after his business. His protege actually turned out to be a police spy and he was determined to bring to an end the drug trade. Excellent movie overall!

Hmm...what the watch this weekend? Epic Movie anyone? hehe...