for such is a time

"cheesy" hotdog rolls version 2!

i added cheese this time..yummy!

dessert: nata de coco jelly

cucumber mask-ing!

it has been a fun weekend for dearie and i. this is a long awaited rest as school has been very busy since it began this year. so what did we do?

Sat: - did MR run. dearie was the only one who managed to complete the 3 sets of 6.4km; the rest of us were punctured after 2. all thanks to the monkeys which ravaged our drinks. there goes my beloved raspberry pink nalgene bottle =( don't ask me how they managed to drink from it..but they did.

- we went brunch with the rest.. you mee dry! yum yum! it's fun to sit around, chit chat and enjoy a meal together with friends.

- we got home, had a nice nap..and then woke up to watch Slumdog Millionaire. a show we've both been wanting to watch but never got the chance to. the vlc and media player were both pretty laggy..but still, we enjoyed the show nevertheless.

- dinner: i made a version 2 of the previous hotdog rolls..this time round, we added cheese to it.. and dearie also suggest sardines..which i made a few for trial. yum yum yum! dessert was raspberry jelly with nata de coco. hehe.. we've been eating our hearts out!

Sun: - did ECP with our team again. the guys covered 30km while i did 25km with adrienne and yenling. peiyu, petrina and isabel did 20km. it was a mentally tough run for me..as i haven't done distances more than 20km at one go for a long while.. however, the best part of being in a team is having friends to go through the pain with. isabel ran with me a few kms until we reached safra. i ran out to changi coastal alone..but i could see adrienne and yenling ahead. i ran the last few kms with adrienne..and her strength is amazing.

- we went brunch again! with alex, isabel and yenling at old airport road. wantan mee for me!

- i don't fancy waking up at 430am to get to ecp by 530am for runs..nevertheless, the good thing about it is to be able to get home early. we were home before noon time..and that gave us time to grab another nap.

- we watched schindler's list. this is a 93 film i've been wanting to watch for the longest time in my life.. i am strangely drawn to war films/biographies and i enjoyed this steven spielberg film tremendously. no one wins in a war. there can never be a valid reason to justify all the killing.

so that's a weekend with no studying.. just running.. eating.. resting and enjoying time with dearie. as i sit here 9pm.. counting down to the final hours of this weekend, i am thankful for such times. time to enjoy company of good friends.. time to do things we like.. time to eat the things we want (and not worry about growing fat because we ran hard for it).. time to do the things we've been wanting to do but never got the time to... time to cuddle.. time to do masks.. time to laugh..and time to be a part of each other's lives. =)

it has to go up

Exams for the term had ended last weekend but we are still ploughing through 2 more assignments due this Friday. I was given a stack of readings on Monday and my task is to pick up noticeable events that might have caused a steepening and flattening of the yield curve on a month to month basis. I am required to send mine in to JK for compilation by tonight; hence I will not be making my way down to ccab for training.

I will drop my cpa application into the mailbox on Friday morning. Having checked with May, the whole application process will definitely take more than a month. My heart beats faster with the very thought of obtaining that cpa position.

I was counting down again to my final term of studies this morning. It’ll all pass before I know it.

A mental timeline of what I am going to do from now till end of this year.

- hand up assignment by this Friday, 25/09

- research on building my own portfolio (28/09 – 29/10)

- read harry potter & eq books (28/09 – 29/10)

- clear back log of newspapers to read (28/09 – 04/10)

- read up corp finance notes (26-28/09)

- start corp finance class (29/10 – 22/11)

- corp finance exam (12/12)

I am making plans in my mind now to how I want to approach things after my final exam. New goals. New processes. I must take active steps to head towards where I want to be.

Thought about the work now, the people around me and what I am feeling about all that. I am disheartened in some ways.

When everything has hit a bottom, there is no other way out but up. And UP it will be for dearie and i!

crispy hotdog puff

our new tryout home made dish-crispy hotdog puff! yum yum!

it was so good dearie and i had 4 each. we made it ourselves..it was not bought off the shelf =)

we also had ayamas canned curry to go along..and it goes well with kampung koh too! =)

pensive day

Another pensive day at work. dearie talked me through and it made me consider my dreams vs the reality, the mundane and the exciting.

He is right, we don’t always get things to go the way we dream of them to. There are many things we enjoy and wish we could do, however reality doesn’t always move in line with all that.

When I was doing my acca many years back, my dream career upon graduation was to be a tax consultant. I enjoyed tax planning modules immensely. Tax planning is like a game of working within rules. It is making the most out of whatever tax regulations that are in place and getting them to work in favour of the business as much as possible.

Well, that was my dream almost a decade ago. Truth is, I never got to practice tax after I graduated. I did apply for tax assistant positions and I remembered getting an interview back then. I wasn’t offered the job as the interviewer asked me if I knew tax assistants do the most basic jobs like filling up Forms Cs.

As I ventured into the world of finance through my postgraduate studies, I find myself particularly drawn to analysis. In the most recent assignment, we were tasked with different time frames through the last 10 years. In the given time frame, we are to construct yield curves and study what might have caused the peaks and troughts..the spikes..etc. the period my team was tasked is between Jul 2001 to Jun 2002.

In the initial plotting of the yield curves by month, it seems pretty normal. Upward sloping. Some steepening, some flattening and that was pretty normal. Nothing interesting like a downward sloping curve..or even a flat curve to be wow-ing over. Nevertheless, after we went into the observing the events during this period, there was more that met the eye. Sept 11 2001 – terrorist attacks on the World trade centre. Late 2001 to 2002, collapse of Enron and Worldcom. I was going wow.. that was quite an eventful year! I read into how MAS adjusted Singapore monetary policies to cushion the impact of the weakening global economy. How did the ripple effect from US went into Eurozone, Japan and Asia. Which economies were hit hardest and why. Which were not that badly hit and why.

The macro overview of the global economy invigorated my mind; despite the reading of 6 100-page reports was a little head-spinning. =P

It made me draw some references into the present downturn. I’m keen to read into the magnitude of this downturn and compare it with the 2001 one. Certainly both are very much different in terms of cause. I would like to compare and contrasts the different approaches the governments had adopted in the 2 different downturns. What areas of the economy did it hit? The recovery process during then and now? Are there similarities to draw? How has the business landscape changed such that what may apply in 2001 be irrelevant now? After each downturn, how does an economy evolve?

I’m curious.. and I am interested to know more! =)

I began conjuring ideas of going into academics..but I think research does not seem easy at all. My big ideas and dreams feel constrained and stifled within the compounds of my workstation. There is a pasture of learning I want to be racing through!

A hit back to reality. I still have to go about the routine, and sometimes mundane, of what my job requires me to do. Until I find something better, I resign that I still have to use a binoculars to peer into the world out there. I hope one day I can walk out of this box and experience more first-hand.

I agree with dearie that I do have to take ownership of learning. I will certainly look into doing more reading during my month’s holiday after my portfolio exam till the start of next term. It is the process of getting me ready for my next job! One thing I want to learn at my fingertips is the FRS. I want to be able to rattle off FRS easily..so I don’t get bullied by the auditors. =P

Learning is the only way to expand my capacity. It will get me to where I want to be.

leaving on a jet plane

Dearie commented I haven’t updated my blog in a while. Have been occupied with holiday, assignments, preparation of exams, running, training and work.

I thought about how I can best write about the perth holiday and marathon but I found myself limited by my vocabulary and writing skills.

In brevity, traveling to perth widened our global perspective. it enabled us to compare and contrast with Singapore and Malaysia. We discussed about the way things are done there and here. Some things we adored about perth and some, not so well liked. One thing we had to battle with was the cold weather. When the gusts of wind blew, it felt like one big cold freezer which we could not get out of. Running in the cold was quite a struggle as my body shivered when the wind blew. My nose became stuffy and phlegm developed in my throat. Quite a discomfort on those parts..but the only nice thing about the cold weather is we don’t perspire as much. After completing the marathon, we were relatively dry. A stark contrast to the ahm we did earlier, when 21km of run left us drenched in perspiration.

i am thankful for Michael who allowed us to bunk in with him. He had been very accommodating throughout the entire trip. Thank you once again. I thought traveling with Isabel was fun as 3 of us (dearie, Isabel and myself) are similar in several ways. I think we scoured the aisles of Woolworths and coles numerous times, looking for bargain buys. I laughed when I recalled how we huddled along the street of subiaco, sharing a roast chicken and strawberries. we walloped 2 tubs of Yoplait yoghurt, several punnets of strawberries, cherry tomatoes, 3 roast chickens, subway foot longs, 3 raisin loaves, kit kat cookies and cream.. =)

we finally got to sit at the cafe and oversaw the bustle of perth city. sipping coffee and basking in the warm sunlight were things we seldom got to do.

All these are memories money cannot buy nor take away.

Coming back to ‘reality’..i’ve been ranting more these days to dearie about work..Despite of it all, we are pushing ourselves on because we believe there is more ahead for us.

School is easing out as assignments are coming to a wrap and I’m just left with one more exam in less than 2 weeks’ time. I did up the final summary for my part of the fis assignment and after 3 days of work, I’m pretty happy with it. Get the consolidation done, add more content and we are ready to hand in. this is much like a work between 2 team members out of a team of 3.

We have some finishing work to do on the portfolio assignment, which I reckon we can complete that in a day or two.

Revision of portfolio feels abit tattered. I am unsure what to expect..but I do need to do a lot of reading for sure. Targeting to finish all the given readings before the weekend. Will want to delve into other recommended material for more reading during the weekend, towards next week as well.

As I strolled to catch the bus this morning, I counted down to the end of the course again. 3 months. I am exactly 3 months away from my final paper. I am so close to getting to the next phase of my life.