everything in its time

For the first time in my life, I listened to the entire national day rally. And I mean the entire rally, from malay to Chinese and finally English. PM Lee addressed the many issues recently raised by Singaporeans. He also brought into perspective the key focus of the Singapore government.

I found wisdom in the things said and I will like to take some time to understand them better; how it is applicable to me and my immediate environment.

Dearie ordered a kindle 3 for me over amazon! I can’t wait for it to arrive. Then I can read all my pdf files and e-books on it.

Talking about books, I have completed the reading of my economic indicators book. Now I am onto the darryl guppy book, which is even thicker than the ei book..and the fonts and formatting are not as pleasant as the ei too. Ahhh. I am expecting to take a longer time to plough through this.

i’m enjoying playing more these days. I am getting the hang of doing sight reading and my fingers are gradually coorperating with me better.

I spent the weekend doing things I planned for – read my book. Practise my pieces. Run MR! rest. Try new dishes, which one out, of the three, did not turn out too satisfactory.

Patience – a virtue I seek to have. i have a long way to travel which I am hoping to leap pass. I should do more and progress faster. yet, I find my legs and arms tied. Bounded by circumstances, by time and opportunities. Be patient. Your time will come.

autumn leaves

first i ogle at digital pianos..now i find myself dreaming to play like that. jazz improvision always feels tough for me. it doesn't come intuitively. maybe i'm not trying hard enough.

i've been playing more, but i still sound no where near pleasant.

let me get my act together. find a part time job to save up for a nice digital piano. hoho. $200 worth of savings per month. $2400 in a year. gulps. so that means i need to save 2 years to get myself a mid-level yamaha clp series. any one has part time jobs for me? =D

Roland V Piano

it doesn't look fantastic but the sound is wowowowowoww.. are you sure this is a digital piano? but we can't get this in singapore and from what i read online, it costs aud9,999 (so that's at least s$12k)

dwanking

dearie did a recording when i was practising my pieces and it sounded dreadful. i think my control of the notes and tempo is horrendous. i do need alot more practise. the F sounds 'dwanky'. it just goes dwank dwank dwank.

i spent some time practising on wed evening. 1 hour passed quickly when i was making all that noise. somehow, i forgot i had a less-than-pleasant day at work during that hour.

in effort to find a part time job to utilise my time, i sent out 4 enquiries out to advertisers of part time positions. not a single one replied. i start to wonder did the positions fill so quickly? maybe the advertisers pick candidates on lucky draw basis? or are the ads bogus? (because i go to job sites every morning and i keep seeing same positions of the same company repeatedly advertised.) maybe they are too busy to entertain to my enquiries, because i have not attached my resume along with it. somehow i could identify the same thing with the applications i sent out for dearie. we have sent numerous through the months but hardly had any response.

what are we doing wrong here? hmm.

looking forward to the weekend. we need to rest. i want to run, bike, read, practise and try some new dishes.

transportation woes

the customer satisfaction index is showing that commuters are rating our public transport more poorly. they are still finding the buses and trains way too crowded, adding onto the recent fare adjustment which garnered more boos than yays.

we are at the mercy of transportation providers. i don't see much significance in have an index like that. so what even if we voted satisfaction down? what can we do if the providers choose not to do anything about it? we are so dependent on it and there is no direct substitute.

i wish i could be less reliant on public transport because i don't want to be at the mercy of it. just like how i thought we were reliant on 1 person to provide us with the training programme. he could give us crap, but we would still have to bear with it.

depend on no one but yourself.

how about biking to work as a viable alternative? for that, we are at the mercy of weather only.

can't take my eyes off you

found this lovely photo of the N3 from this lady's website http://blog.helenyhou.com/2010/02/review-yamaha-avantgrand-n3/ and she also reviewed the N3. Doesn't it look absolutely contemporary in her living room? Aww, i dream of furnishing my future home like that.
Beautiful. Times like these i wish i played the piano better to deserve a baby like that. Or, I wish i am simply filthy rich to splurge $25k on this, without much hesitation.

Argh, i hate myself. I'm neither of the two. =(

making noise

I started making a lot of noise for about 30mins or so last night. 2 keys on my piano are getting ‘sticky’. One D and one F#. Sticky means that after u depress the keys, it doesn’t come right up again. Dearie asked me how old was my piano and I replied, “since 11 years old.” That makes my piano close to 18 years old. Is it going into adulthood pretty soon!

I hope I haven’t irritated dearie and my neighbours with the lousy playing. But honestly, I kind of enjoyed the playing after the hiatus. My wrist injury has almost recovered, so I could play with less pain. Some of the past exam pieces still feel so familiar..

I am picking 2 pieces to work – say yes and beethovan’s opus 13. I give myself the challenge to master them. Will be fantastic if I can play them by heart!

I’m 62% done with my economic indicators book. So far pretty informative but too much to digest. all the stats I am reading come from US..and we are not exposed to most of them in Singapore. But I am noting how some stats reveal certain trends in the economy.

Dearie and I discussed about our portfolio of investments. I had a revelation that I would rather own 5 properties than 5 lv bags. =P

We agreed that we will are contented living simply. Our 4 room flat fits our needs, our off peak Honda serves its purpose. We do not need anything beyond these for now. Whatever we can generate from our jobs, should be spent wisely and invested. Only by this, we can make our money work harder. Of course there will be risk in every investment, but I believe we can take calculated risk.

In my vanity for pretty things, it’s like a slap on my face. It tells me success is more than what is seen on the outside. Sure, it’s nice to don extravagant apparel and accessories. But what matters more is how full and deep are my pockets, how well I fare in career, being adequately educated and on top of all that, have time for loved ones around me.

I think that’s what being a big potato is about. We’ve got a long way to go but we are making our way there. =)

new dream piano

oooh.. droooooooool. this costs $25k. saw this at il lido's bar. totally fell in love with this. and most importantly, it's BLACK. to me, pianos SHOULD be in BLACK.

it's beautiful. i haven't got a chance to touch and feel it. i wonder how it is like?

got this impending rush to start playing again, though my dip dream has fallen so far back. i found myself a whole lot of yiruma sheet music. i've also gotten my yukie nishimura scores.

perhaps i should channel my energy on this, than to think about picking up a new language.

and dearie said..if i play well enough, he'll one day buy me the N3. $25K. big gulps. hahaha.

beautiful music by Hans Zimmer for Pearl Habour Movie, Tennessee

mouthful of korean

i am convinced i have no linguistic flair.

attempted to try karaok-ing one nice song from personal taste ost, along with romanised translation. but i think i was going..bloh bloh and soh soh.

i am finding korean harder to croak (eh, karaoke) than japanese.

ahhhhhhhh.. so dearie advising against learning another language is right. i think we do not have a direct environment to help polish the newly picked up language skill to.

high-class lunch photos

beautiful view out to sentosa golf course

outdoor dining..we stayed indoors though.

tuna salad. they actually call this salad. i see more fish than veg.

pork loin

asparagus soup. the red thing was a cherry tomato.

sea bass

the best dish for me. creme brulee.

after i posted it as atas lunch, dearie corrected me. atas means up. up lunch photos? hehe. so i've edited this post n the last one related to the lunch.

k drama hangover

dearie and i went through the entire personal preference series.

channel u will commence showing it this coming series.

i am now on a k-drama hangover. =(

much like those taiwan serials.. japanese serials.. it just makes one go awwwwwww..

on such high now, i may need some time to get my senses back.

okok, i'm going korea next year!! perhaps i may bump into lee min ho on the streets. hohoho!

high class (not atas) lunch

we had a welcome lunch for the new gm and technical manager at this really high class restaurant located in sentosa.

Il Lido. Italian fine dining. The set lunch costs $38++, which works out to about $45/person. i was so relieved to hear it was not on dutch..else i will bust my tight budget this month.

i can't remember if i've been to somewhere so high class (have i been to one in the first place? haha). but it's a good experience.

i liked the coffee at the end of the meal so much, i drank it kosong. i remembered pa saying coffee must drink without sugar, in order to taste its aroma. he is right. but i think only good coffee can be drank kosong.

let me try sort out the photos i've taken and post it up. IF i do get around doing so! =P

big potato dream

tricia is a small fry, hoping to one day become a BIG potato.

but how?

maybe she should stay underground longer.

just a little despaired

It’s a rainy day today. Market is looking as weak and flat, like the dow and nasdaq.

I made a couple of blunders today. Too much Korean drama makes me blur.

I feel somewhat impatient but I am telling myself to stay level headed.

What a lovely weather to be in bed.

I will be stuck in meetings for the next half of the day. Something I dread at times.

Trying to lift my spirits up though what’s going on around me looks gloomy.

We missed the short window of opportunity to sell our counter off this morning, now we are swept away by the rain.

The company’s situation is not looking too good. So that explains for part of my lethargy in the meetings. Finetuning the purchasing procedures and writing off obsolete stock do not seem as the most important things to be addressed, given the company’s situation.

I certainly hope things work out soon.

Let’s hope the market starts to pick up, so we can throw all our holdings away in exchange for a little profit.

Let’s hope the company finds a way to stay afloat.

I look at others who seems to own it all and I wonder when I can get there. What do I need to do to move up a notch? How can I become better? How to earn more money? Is it because they worked harder than everyone else? Or are they just lucky? What I am not doing enough? Or maybe what I have not done right?

Perhaps I have set a goal too high for ordinary me to reach.

saving money for a higher calling

My thoughts have been wandering again. dearie showed me several foldable bikes, which do look great!

I commented that we can consider getting one when we have the money. Just thinking about the practicality of getting one. Will we get many opportunities to ride it? Will we be able to perhaps bike to work 1-2days a week? I would love to, but the same concerns I have discussed, in my earlier entry, pops up. Traffic. Parking. Shower. How should I work around all that?

We are going to start doing ground work for our higher worth investment. We are not buying into one, but the mid term plan is to get one and start financing to one day own it! meantime it’s a lot of fact finding, calculation, projection..and then start to work on towards it.

Dearie suggested I revive the home cooked lunch. I stopped doing so because I got lazy. It might not be a bad thing to incorporate 1-2days of home cooked meals in a week. Healthier and should save us some money too. The only limitation is the number of dishes I know how to cook.

Hmm. It’s interesting to think about ways and means to save money. Do these ways actually work ah? Perhaps we can try quantifying them one of these days. =)

on my thinking in-tray

I have been contemplating if I should take up a part-time book keeping job. I feel I should be doing more with my time to bring in more income. If I can handle it, why not? It’s good to have more to go around. It will help us realize our dream of expanding our investment portfolio to those of higher worth. We are young and this is the prime time to work hard. If not now, when?

Book keeping feels like a much easier job than tutoring, because it is part of my profession. Teaching doesn’t come as naturally for me, because managing expectation is difficult. I hate taking blame for students not doing well because they do not want to listen to my advice to practice. Accounting is often a neglected subject. It’s not a core subject to get the students into tertiary education, unlike languages, maths and sciences.

I ask myself if I can cope? I will learn to cope.

Can I commit? What am I giving up in exchange? I will have lesser time for rest.

Why am I even thinking about this in the first place? I need time to accumulate the years at my present job. From now till I have the sufficient years to be eligible for the next level, I will most probably have to stay around in this company for the next 1.5years more. I feel I am not doing and earning enough. After obtaining post-graduate, my career is not accelerating as first as I wish I could do. My pay is slightly better than before but I feel I am not doing enough. Since I cannot find myself another job, the only way I can get around this is to take up a part time job.

What can I able to cope with? I have weekends to spare.

Time frame? I am giving myself 1.5 years, in tandem with the span of time I must stay around my current job.

Is it worth the effort? I saw a permanent position that pays $500 for 4 days a month’s worth of work. 9.5 hours each day. 38 hours a month. That is about $13/hour. If i do this for 1.5years, that will mean $9000 worth of extra income. Assume I can earn a 4% interest p.a for the amount, I will get $9285 at the end of 1.5 years. Ok, that’s nominal amount, I don’t think I want to adjust it for inflation because it will make my decent income look indecent.

While I continue to weigh out if I can take up another job, I have emailed out to find out more information. it’s good to understand more; what are companies looking for, what is the required commitment level like? And if there will be any kind companies out there which won’t mind hiring me too!

This still lies in kiv tray. Let’s see if I can work something out of this. =)

i can still smell wantan mee

The weekend break was more than what I could ask for. During the 2 days I forgot about work I left behind, the counters I was betting on.

Batu pahat has great food. I can almost still taste the nice wanton mee in my mouth. Even the simple looking zichar stall, just below where wendy stayed, had its own fare of good food to offer.

We caught the last airbender movie at an affordable rm10/person. The movie was really entertaining, though I won’t rate it brilliant. The animation was nice, the visuals kept us entertained to a large extent.

The morning run in the park was fun. Ran almost 5km with pa and we did another round of morning aerobics. People are friendly there, as we made conversation with several residents who came to have their morning exercise. It is uncommon in Singapore for people to talk and ask how we are getting on. What you will see in the usual weekend park connector scenario is people would just go about their run, oblivious to surroundings. People are not interested in other’s lives; perhaps to them they are merely strangers. We don’t greet those usual faces we see; maybe because we don’t even notice that we see them frequently. Somehow, while economy developed forward, human relationship took a back seat. We are less compassionate, less patient and care lesser for others. Or perhaps, we just don't have the time to bother?

We have a new Korean serial from wendy, that’s a better alternative to the usual local 9pm drama (which doesn’t have a lot of drama). i think korean serials have alot of droolworthy hunks and babes.

I woke up this morning almost forgetting I needed to work today.

Market looks turbulent this morning. While all our counters are officially down, but it would be great if we had more spare cash to share up some cheap counters washed out by the economic storm.

Equities remain an extremely volatile financial instrument to work with. I am still appalled how some counters move. Some perform exceedingly well, while others which are not fundamentally bad, can be so adversely affected. Market might simply be efficient for some and I do not have much information at hand to react as quickly as how many others can move.

I find my mind scattered over a number of things at work. There is a lot going on at work, with the sharp turn the company is negotiating. There seem to be a lot to find out. A lot to understand. Sometimes I find myself looking at all that blankly, wondering what next? Maybe I lack that business acumen to react swiftly to them.

13aug hits and misses

finally in the action of things. we bought in 2 counters today and we managed to get it close to its lowest for the day.

if you can see which chart this counter belongs too. we didn't get to buy in this because i was greedy for the 0.005 drop. i wanted it to drop another 0.005 but before i knew it, it's up 1.74% today. then again, if it touches support again, and if i have the cash, i will buy in this counter.

we have total 4 counters at hand. 2 of which we are holding on to. these may not turn so soon. may need to hold on longer than expected. one of the 2 new counters bought today will need to move fast because of its price volatility.

wanted to get ocbc for mummy but i also missed its turning point. it got very close to the top of my target range, but not tempting enough to buy in. banking sector should slow down in the next half but it should be safe enough to buy in for mid-long term investment if the price is right!

fingers crossed for monday! mini-goal for yesterday, checked!!

mini-goals 13/08/10

i actually find posting my mini-goals on my blog boosts my determination to complete it. hahha. it does help in some ways.

and so, here are today's mini-goals.

1. complete costing report and send it out with financials to management - done & sent before 5pm

2. finish my housework

3. feel like squeezing in another run before i go for my weekend getaway (i can hear dearie's rising impetus to nag me)

we'll be heading to batu pahat for a weekend getaway at wendy's! =D eat, watch movie and have a great time with family. hoho!

boooo

remember i was suppose to start on the hotshot warrant game on tues? the trading platform is disappointing. maybe it hasn't got enough bandwidth to support so many players.

on the first day, the platform didn't load and showed error message whenever i tried to log on.

today logging in was no problem but to trade? the page doesn't move at all. if i don't get to buy my call warrants today, i am giving up on this game.

i don't think it's my server problem as i stream my 2 real-life trading platform well. i don't see why the hotshot platform can fail so miserably.

this is just not helping with my experience of trading warrants. i think it's an omen - don't touch derivatives!

the day after

things revert back to normal after a good one day of high.

want to start off the day with some mini-goals. (updated at 4pm)

1. complete, check and send out group conso by end of today. -done! yayy!
2. go for a run tonight - didn't run. (update 13/08, but we biked and ran the following morning)
3. pick up some counters if it touches close to my target buy prices - i don't think i'll get to pick up any. too greedy, waited too long and now prices are recovering fast. feels like i've missed the boat. =( (update 13/08, bought in 2 counters!)

i have been utilising my time to read a novel on my htc, as dearie taught me to. i think it is good to spend the 15mins on the mrt to read instead of just staring blankly in mid air. this novel is good, i am still pretty captivated by it as i read into chapter 3. the power of a good story is how it can literally teleport you into the story itself; put yourself looking at the protagonist and how things were happening.

i am half way through the economic indicators book. unfortunately it is too bulky to carry around for me to keep reading it everyday. will bring it to bp this weekend and see how much more i can finish. it's quite a informative book but not all the information is relevant because it covers statistics of the US. we do not feel the direct impact which the release of these statistics have on singapore. nevertheless, it's good to be in the know.

we finally got to try our hands on the ipad yesterday. i totally agree that it is a blown up version of the iphone. nice, but i find it too heavy and bulky in my definition of an e-reader. but again, it has other functions which e-readers do not have. i'm not in need of another gadget at the moment. if i can keep up with my reading, then maybe an e-reader will be on my christmas list! =D

my birthday treat

dearie brought me to my choice japanese ramen shop at robertson quay. can u see how gigantic the bowl of ramen is?

i love the dipping sauce of the tsukemen.. it is sooo tasty.

the charshu is sooo yummmmy! fatty la..but..but..

the sinjiro has this huggge heap of cabbage and bean sprouts.

the handmade ramen is very chewy. a different taste from the street ramen we had in tokyo.

after dinner we walked down clarke quay to city hall. it's nice to stroll down without the usual weekend crowd. i was just thankful for the wonderful meal and great time we could spend together. =)

it's my party

it's MY day! hoho.

thank you friends for remembering. wishes, cakes and gifts received today in the following sequence from:

1. dearie
2. bee lan
3. amy
4. bernard
5. mummy
6. yenling
7. daddy
8. sew kin
9. kor
10. aunty lydia
11. and many more from facebook! (the power of fb, that's how we will not miss bdays of others)

looking forward to ramen dinner tonight with dearie. i hope there is no last minute reports to rush that will spoil my evening!! i will run off on the dot at 6pm. hahaha!

coping

with only a few hours to complete the 7 slides. that's a short time. have to drop everything else i am doing and just work on this. he has the power, so i have to work with his dateline.

breathe in ...breathe out. c'mon tricia, u can handle this.

world class

Could i just rant about the unpleasant encounter with customer service in singapore? despite the constant effort to try raise the bar of customer service in singapore, i guess we are still nowhere close to that which i have experienced in japan. friends say taiwan and korea are a whole lot better too. we have world class accolades to boast about. yet, customer service in singapore is pasat-class.

i was out shopping with dearie and mummy on sunday at city hall. we walked into a shop selling branded bags. we saw a nice leather bag and my mum and i lifted it off the shelf to take a closer look. a sales lady walks over and said, "this is made of CALF skin. the big one costs $10XX. the small one costs $9XX. the handle is made of GOLD mesh."

then she looked at us, stood there for a while and walked away.

none of us asked for the price. was she trying to tell us that we would probably be unable to afford to buy the bag?

i may sound petty..but if you were there to listen to the tone, you would understand why we were upset.

mummy walked out and asked, "i didn't ask her for the price."

yea. neither did i.

dearie post-mortemed the incident.

dearie: the lady probably looked at what bag you were carrying.

me: my bag also got brand what.

dearie: but yours in comparison to theirs.

me: ...

dearie: then she looked at the bag your mum was carrying.

me: charles and keith? (ok. again relate to that against the bags in the shop.)

dearie: then she looked at what you wore.

me: $20 dress from bugis village

this is not the first time i have encountered unpleasant sales persons in singapore. i earn a decent living. i can hold my head high that i am at least in a esteemed profession, though my company may not be some mnc.

one day i will get there. not that i will spend my money in a singapore store. but i will be financially capable enough to afford more things for my family and i.

i will own a bag of that brand one day. not because i am vain, but i recognise its quality.

oh yes, on the lighter side of things. let's end with another funny dialogue between dearie and i, coincidentally on the same day.

we were on 2nd floor and i wanted to drop by river island.

me: where's river island ah?

dearie: huh? don't know leh.

moments later.

dearie: oh, no more river island le.

me: huh? why?

dearie: river dry up, mango growing liao. (pointing to the spot where river island was previously situated but now renovating to become mango)

me: -_-

my (early) birthday cake

drooooolsworthy mummy's pandan chiffon cake! mummy baked 3 and i got to pick 2!

this was the largest one. i picked this of course! and i ate half of it within half a day. yummmmmmy!!! totally delectable. the cake is so fine, it taste like a cloud in my mouth(not that i have eaten a cloud la..) but it is that soft!

thank you mummy, for taking so much time to bake these cakes. i really love them. One year is worth the wait. i hope i can get to eat this cake for many many many more years. =)

happy national day

i was out with yenling for bike ride again this morning! at 5am, there were quite a number of taxis roaming the streets. taxi drivers aren't the friendliest people on the road. anyway..

i thought my legs are gradually getting accustomed to the pedaling. the 4km run after the bike ride definitely feels faster, especially with the uncle who tried to overtake me from the start. it gave me a reason to pick up a little faster. ok, even i am egoistic!

the sky looks overcast now; rain seems to be coming soon.

got to help mummy finish the jun accounts. i will be popping by her home to pick up my early birthday cake. can't wait to eat the pandan cake she bakes, totally delectable. i remember last year when i got it, dearie and i wolfed down half of it in one go. hahaha. it is THAT good! it beats begawan solo hands down lor!

saw a guy running with the vibram five fingers. from what i gathered, that thing costs $178. wow. i do not refute the benefits barefoot running yields, but to spend $178 for those 2 pieces of things? erm. why don't you just remove your shoes and run barefoot? i have read off runners world of a world class runner who simply takes off his shoes and run barefoot a couple times per week to train. there is a lady from safra jurong who also runs barefoot occasionally for training. she's a speedy gonzales who can easily beat a huge majority of guys in our club.

an ex-coach used to get us remove our shoes and socks and just run barefoot on the grass field. i think that's a sound way of barefoot running less the hard pounding on tarmac.

dearie mentioned about sports gear being pricey, which i totally concur. but we definitely can learn to make wise choices in the gear we buy. i am just a leisure runner, after a couple of years of running, i realise the most expensive shoes aren't always the best. the lightest shoes do not make me any faster either. only proper training and rest will help me get faster, the shoes are secondary. =)

oh yes, it's national day today. singapore is good place. the only thing i am ashamed is the disgusting rubbish strewed all over the surroundings of my block. it is revolting to see all the rubbish, not just tissue paper i mind you. sometimes you can see food packets and other perishables thrown all over the place. despite having made complaints, it is still dirty. sometimes i wonder if the litter bugs are singaporeans. if yes, shame on you. i am ashamed to have such inconsiderate and unhygienic counterparts. talk about corrective work order, those are the people who ought to be put on it now. you can air all the ads but these people will keep throwing. in a developed society, these acts really dent the beautiful city the rest are trying to create. sigh.

long weekend day 1

i'm more than 25% done with my economic indicator book. i have stopped reading the technical analysis book as it didn't make much sense as i progressed to the last 25% of the book. it was getting me nowhere, my time is better spent on something that made sense.

mummy will be baking my birthday pandan chiffon cake on monday. it's a yearly affair. i want to pop by and spend the day with her. maybe i should just take a mrt down as there should many roads closed for the national event at the padang.

i am itching for another ride and i wonder if i could plan it on monday? i am wondering if there are any riding groups for noobs? but i also considered if i can keep up with regular rides.

i couldn't help but yelped out in excitement while going down the long downhill on mandai road. unlike my first ride last week, i wasn't trying to apply brake to slow down, instead, i enjoyed the wind and speed on my bike. it's a wonderful feeling; something i have loved years back. there are many things i used to do, which i no longer do. maybe it's good revisiting them sometimes.

if i can keep up with my biking for another 1-2months, i would like to get a 2nd hand speedometer. at least i can see if how slow am i exactly!

this ought to be a restful long weekend. catch up on alot of reading. think through and plan for the last 5 months of the year. i am not particularly looking forward to go anywhere. staying home is good. but i think we need to stock up more food at home because i am running out of ideas on what meals to cook. no istimewa from me this week.

riding alive

i was out biking with yenling today as dearie is still feeling unwell.

it was an awesome ride! i though my handling improved slightly.

i came back and topped the ride with a slow 4km run, something i wanted to do last week but didn't do so.

cooled down with a stretch. felt absolutely fabulous. i love how exercise invigorates the body. the perspiration cooled the body. the blood pumping through my arteries made my body alive.

dearie didn't seem to happy with what i did this morning. maybe the medication has made him a grouchy old fogey. do hope he is feeling better already. =)

and yes, today is wendy's birthday! happy birthday to you, gal!

as time goes by

what a lethargic noon. despite turning in early last night, i am still feeling somewhat restless.

it'll be a long weekend for us as national day falls on monday. i tried to plan out what i'll like to achieve over the long weekend, but came up with nothing. i still have the same to-read list and some should-dos, can-dos and would-like-to-dos; i just didn't know where and when to place them at.

the budget tickets to seoul didn't turn up too budget in the end. with the airport taxes, luggage and what-nots charges, i could be better off flying with cathay. only thing is cathay has no promotion for 2011 flights currently. so we'll be waiting for cheaper tickets to come by.. and also hoping seoul marathon doesn't clash with dearie's exams. or we might not go for the marathon. or we might not go korea. maybe we should consider gold coast instead?

it's a waiting game. i am waiting to gather enough experience at my job so i can plan for my next step. i am waiting to have my 5 years experience so i can move into a senior position. will i be able to command a better pay after the waiting? will i still be in this company with all the waiting? we are waiting for a worthwhile promotion for air tickets. we are waiting for the exact date and confirmation of seoul marathon, so we can plan training. i see time go by but i am still slow in my reading.

i'm at the mercy of time. i can only wait.

mooocha

ooooo..i discovered mocha in office.

whenever i need my chocolate shot and a wake-me-up, i'll make mocha for myself.

all i need which are available in the pantry/my drawer

1. milo 1 big scoop

2. a small teaspoon of sugar

3. a packet of 3-in-1 coffee

3 of these together give MOCHA!

sip sip. oohh..it's bliss!

n.b: obviously my mocha doesn't look as nice as that in the picture.

read to e-reader

i know what i want for christmas!

an e-reader. a kindle 3 will be perfect!

i got the following list of books lying around to be read. if i can finish reading them all by dec 25, then i want to get an e-reader!

1. technical analysis (50% completed)
2. economic indicators
3. daryl guppy's book
4. lky book
5. harry potter (x4 more, sorry alicia, i keep pushing these down the must-read list)

7.5 books effectively over slightly lesser than 5 months. i have an estimated 20 days per book. this will be quite a challenge.