the question of time and tide again

 i haven't been updating this much. quick look at what i've read recently. finished this chinese book this morning. light hearted book. i'm not too sure what i should read next.. Narnia? I downloaded the entire series of the chronicles of narnia for a while now..but isn't enticing to make me start on them.

interesting things that has happened worth the mention. i went to climb mt lambak with dearie and his colleagues. it was lots of fun..i'm envious he has such fun colleagues who are alot more enthusiastic about activities beyond work. i collected my bronze medal for blood donation. hope to be able to continue to contribute in such small ways in the future. we had taishoken ramen at ramen champion.. something i have been wanting to try..and finally got the chance to!

we will be heading off to taiwan in another 3 weeks. wow..i am so looking forward to a break from work. the days post-apr have seemed to slow down into a crawl. Opportunities to learn seem to have vanished overnight. Indeed, as dearie correctly pointed out, life does not always go the way we want them to. I am still getting paid, no doubt. but I guess I’ll be actively looking for means to develop myself, by my own effort. Time and tide waits for no man. I’m not going to just sit here and get swept off my tide, or grow too weary to move with the passing of time.

curry and cycle

remember this bowl of japanese curry i made for dearie? seems eons away. attempting to recreate that yummy bowl of curry for dinner today again. keeping my fingers crossed that it will taste as good, if not better.

there's been alot of debate about cyclists' "status" on the road. though i doubt a lane on the roads for us will be possible, i guess it helps if the general driving community exercise some graciousness to cyclists.

while i will like to think the accidents were not specifically targeted at cyclists. it is just the impatience, and perhaps some selfishness, of the driver that could have taken over the better of them. i have been a victim of bike accidents and i testify. some drivers simply think that we are slow on our bikes and should not be on the road. when the accidents occur, they would give that "what are you doing on the road" face.

it'll take not just a bike lane to make the roads safer for cyclists. it will take something radical...like how english was introduced into our education system decades ago.

atonement after dark

another great read. though i have not read many of haruki murakami's works but i thought after dark is one of those more comprehensible reads.

murakami, in the likes of ishiguro, has this twisted way of writing.

going back to something more mainstream. next book is atonement. haven't got to watch the movie yet, thought i may start with the book first.

haven't got many good books to read these days. i'm bored. should i start reading the narnia series in my kindle?

anyone has any good recommendation?

one after another

 after chasing daylight, i went back to my e-books and the first one i embarked on was bailout nation. i didn't quite get through the entire book. i was bored by it, honestly. so i skipped off to book thief half way.

 this book left me baffled. lost! after a few pages, i merrily skipped off to after dark.

i thought this was a simpler book to read compared to book thief. maybe i will revisit book thief when i am more awake.

happy me

though my birthday is still a couple days away, i've received 3 marvellous gifts from my loved ones.

dearie got me a watch and these!..the newest asics ds trainers...in yellow! (why aren't they in pink?)

mummy got me a new wallet..in red! (the closest we could get to pink)

i'm thankful for the love and the gifts of course! so when is my bday treat to taishoken? hoho!

chasing

Chasing daylight. It's one of those must-read books, which i think presents simple logic - learning to give thanks, to slow down to smell the flowers..which i think in our busy-ness, we have so little time to do.

get me there!

ooh starting on new book later this evening! it's an autographed copy by marshall goldsmith..wow!

feels like some generalised book but i guess 200+ pages isn't that bad. whatsmore, it's a paperback!

after this, i've got another book on my shelf and then i'll head back to my kindle..neglected it for too long.

crisis economics

i notice i lack patience these days. i gave up on the this time is different book. found most of the content beyond me and decided not to waste my time trying to decipher the code.

onto the next book, crisis economics, which i thought had contents alot like this time is different. this book is alot more palatable and written more for layman like me.

talk about difference

i got to the half way mark of the tiger's wife and i gave up. i cannot stand the haphazard way of writing; maybe it's beyond my mediocre literary standard. if japanese writers are dancing freestyle, this lady must be in a brownian motion macarena. trying to make something out of it is exhausting, so i moved on to my next book, this time is different. a quick flip through the 400 pages shows tables after table of statistics. not the kind of book i am particularly drawn to but i think maybe it'll be a good test to whether i'll be cut out to do some postgrad economics!

i've got 2 more books on my workstation which look far more interesting but i think i'll bite the bitter pill and start with the one which is most unappealing.

i am pretty happy i've got most of my mummy's corporate stuff done - annual filing, check. tax, check. final thing on my list is to catch up with 3 months of accounts and setting up a proper system to capture information for gst.

frustrated i didn't get to run last evening AND this morning due to rain. i MUST run tonight!!

friday high and books as usual

i found the lky book really good; it's my first lky book though i bought one of his earlier books which i never got around reading it.

my view on lky still stands, if not more rooted now; he is definitely a man with foresight and boldness during the singapore's tumultuous formation years. he was like a doctor feeding the nation with the bitter pill of bilingualism. i can almost imagine how the deep rooted chinese must have dispelled his drive to make english first language for all school going students. i can vaguely remember the redifussion days, i was borned in the years when the government pushed for more use of chinese and lesser of dialects (remembered the speak chinese campaigns).

i think singapore has come a long way though we are not even close to half a century old. the development we have made is commendable, yet would not have been possible without the sacrifices made by those who were caught in the transition.

in contrast to today, i think we have somewhat come to a plateau with the people becoming fairly complacent. i read and hear more complaints than real efforts made to adapt and change. these are the days when children are no longer disciplined by the cane and must be "reformed" by tender loving care. i grew up being caned for being mischievous, which i personally think it did me more good than harm. i laugh to the past when my bro and i used to hide the canes and wrapped ourselves in blankets so that it didn't hurt as much when my parents caned us.

back to the lky book, it gave me glimpses of the many challenges of running a country. for all those who incessantly pass repulsive remarks on the government, please step forward and try it for yourself. even as employees, we will feel discouraged if our colleagues snide at our work, why are you doing it to our country's leaders? it is always easy to point fingers and blame, but few dare to step forward and lead.

my next book is the tiger's wife. it was an unexpected find as i was in np's library passing time and decided to see if i can find this book on its shelves. to my surprise, it was there waiting for me. i've read about 30 pages of it and i am a little "lost" with the writing. i am not really getting how come people gave reviews which raved about it. maybe i am not up to that kind of literary level yet. nevertheless, i will try to finish it before i conclude.

i was at np to support dearie's runners' relay event. it was just a fantastic way to end the work week, with ECE coming in FIRST for the staff event. i thought all the runners in his team were dressed all unassumingly - white FBT singlets with loosely fitted shorts, yet proved it's about the legs not the outfit. i am super proud of how dearie came in way ahead of all the staff runners, he was about 100m ahead of the next runner when he came back. i could see he was pushing hard as he ran up that last hill and sprinted down the track. he's my superboy! zoom zoom!

it was a fabulous team effort and it proves that hard work does pay off. all the weeks of training helped some get into better running form to take on this run. winning was just the pinnacle of it all. i'm glad i can be a part of it and running with the ladies was fun! i was thinking why haven't i got more colleagues who can run like them!

dearie told me about the trekking trip his colleagues are discussing to organise. to me it's like WOW.. trekking for a department event.. this will NEVER happen in my department. i'm just going to be the usual thick skinned tricia and tag along dearie's department. hoho!
 

post war gore

the 2 nanking books i have read presented views from 2 ends of a line. while the 2nd one started introducing itself as trying to find a neutral grounds between extremes, i tend to find the views presented somewhat skewed. i am mildly irritated by the way the author tried to brush the atrocities off as acts that are prevalent during war.

in the first place, the war was started at will. No one pushed Japan to wage a war with its neighbours.

The author felt some of the verdicts passed at the trial post-war was unfair. He tried to reason that some officers did slaughter some Chinese, but the numbers they were convicted of were inaccurate. I thought it sounded like a child stealing half a bowl of rice off the table. When disciplined by the parent on the theft of a bowl of rice, argued how it's just half a bowl and not a full bowl. Theft is still theft.

Anyway, that's history now and it's a lesson that we all should learn from - war never pays. Everyone lose in a war.

I have started on the LKY book this morning. I guess it'll be a good change after all the war gore.

nanking 2

i am onto my 2nd book on the history of nanking. i found iris chang's book exceptionally insightful.

this nanking book is written by a japanese. in the introduction of the book, he states that iris chang comes from a traditionalist point of view (while trying to make a point that he has read from both extreme perspectives and he felt he has come to a point of neutrality?) anyway, before i start sounding that i have drawn a conclusion on this book i better stop here; i am barely a tenth done with it.

i should be done with this book by next week and perhaps be in a better position to say if i agree with its contents.

3 more books in line.. not forgetting 2 e-books too. i seem to be still drawn to the nanking history. let me see if i can get my hands on another book from np library. which perhaps will need to be last on this queue!

feeling alive and what matters

i have been running consecutively for 3 days. nothing to be boastful of because all 3 were just 8-9km runs. my legs are aching now but i'm not complaining. running makes me feel alive. i scroll through photos of people running the gold coast marathon which took place this morning. i'm sure all of them felt as alive as i did. i think it's a gift to be able to run, with no pain of course. i want to be able to keep running and not have to count the miles (because there's too little to begin with). am i bend on getting faster? maybe lesser of that these days. i think i just want to move my legs, perspire, pant and ache.

i thought about my bikes collecting that thick layer of dust on the rack. i ought to do something about it. bring them out for a ride. i reminisced the former days when i would go out for 4 hours bike ride. riding alone down neo tiew in the morning. and of those days when i joined the riding group and how we did the crazy rides from yishun to changi and back. wow, those feel like distant past. will i do that again? i'm not sure. but i won't mind a leisure ride out some days.

there seems like a million things we want to do everyday. so many books to read. so many scores i want to try out on the piano. runs i want to do. work i want to improve (too!). we make those choices of how we want to spend our time. on what matters more to us.

anyone still reading this?

i have neglected this blog while i was busy preparing for the exam which took place on 23 june. the preparation process felt really long. swapping story books for notes was difficult. having the discipline to sit down every night and study for an hour didn't come easy. all well worth the effort when i received the email notification that i passed.

i'm almost done with what i set out to do this year. while running yesterday night, i began to wonder what to do next year. what other skill set do i want to hone? what other knowledge do i want to acquire?

and so, the first book i have finished reading after the exam was barings lost. barings and nick leeson are somewhat history but this case awakened the whole concept of rouge trading. much of it fuelled by greed; people blinded by the mere pursuit of profits, which coincidentally (or uncoincidentally) is correlated with risk. professionally you call them traders but in truth, they are nothing more than gamblers. do you believe jp morgan's recent loss arose merely from hedging transactions? i can smell the whiff of speculation in it like durian in a room.

let's see. time to get on some work for mummy. next book up is the rape of nanking. i'm always kept busy!

do or die

prepping myself for a tough week ahead. 3.5days of course. will have to travel back to work on 3 our of the 3.5 days. tuesday i'll have to rush down to smu for the revision class.

the week is going to be an exceptionally long one, making the weekend something really worth looking forward to.

we gotten a new luggage bag for the upcoming trips. 2nd half of the year is definitely going to be alot more exciting with all the trips lined up. with dearie doing all the planning, i'm just going to lie back and relax. =)

back to studies. i'm trying to give my do-or-die effort. i'm not even going to give retaking a chance, nor am i going to be ill prepared to give certainty to failure. i'm going to pass this and on the first attempt.
you can do it, tricia! to think i'm giving up all my other books for now..just to read my notes.. i have 5 books - 3 on my desk at home, 2 in the office, lined up to be read and i'm telling them "wait". i HAVE to pass!

the lost daughter of happiness

the flowers of war film deviates quite a fair bit from the book. i thought the writing lacked depth. maybe lost in translation?

i won my side of the bet with dearie. i finished the book this morning, in 2 days. =)

i'm starting on this next book by yan geling, tomorrow. hopefully this will be better than flowers of war.

i wonder if dearie will want to take a bet again with me? 2 days for this too?

after this fiction book i'll probably go for the history books written on nanking. non-fiction books may just be a better read?

flowers of war

 we watched this movie by zhang yimou on sunday. this led me to the book from which the movie was adapted from. dearie popped by the library yesterday and got me 2 books from yan geling.

we put a bet on whether i'll be able to finish this book in 2 days. i'm proud of my progress during my morning trip to work. 50 pages done of the 250 pages book. i might just be able to win the bet. 

book that took a long while to come

after the rules of influence, i read 2 mags. fortune mag with its annual fortune 500 ranking of US companies.. but i think what i found most interesting was the in-depth coverage of HP and its past CEOs down the history. It just proves that a leader can make or break an organisation.

my next book is this - playing the REITs game. something i have been wanting to read but the book went missing in the library for a while. so it's finally found, probably was sitting on someone's desk and he/she forgot the book belongs to the company..

i'm down to my last 3 lessons and that will mean dearie will not have to eat any more prata dinners soon!

books that leave me indifferent

 just to quickly update on the books i've read. finished the ikea edge this morning. i feel indifferent with this book..like the clutch.

looks like another book i'll end up feeling indifferent again. why is our company library stocking up on books that talks about how nice the weather is..how pretty the flowers are..and how busy our lives is.

maybe i'm a more intense person who needs more exciting reads.

running far

i miss running marathons. i miss going for long runs.

suddenly feel like signing up for an overseas marathon.

clutch

traders guns and money is a great book! onto my next book from the company's library.

i've got 3 books from the library..plus many other ebooks to read. the to-read list is never ending!! 

not at all magnetic

done with the magnetic culture book. i didn't like how the author tried to weave his company into the book.

XX strategy is good..and MY company does this and that.

hey if it's a book then just write a book. if you want to market your company, go air it on TV or radio. i reviewed it with 1 star on the library portal. that's for the reiteration of strategies that i already see being practised in the marketplace.

next up is this book. dearie got it for me from his school's library. it's a recommendation from a banker our organisation works with. i started reading some pages of it this morning and it looks pretty interesting. downside is the fonts are a little smaller than the usual, so it takes some adjusting to. small fonts are not too helpful when you are tired. i was drained this morning, so i gave up reading before i reached redhill. fortunately i found a seat, so instead of reading my way to work, i got a few eye-shut moments of rest.

i'm done with the questions on my fixed income handout but i've still got a small stack of forex readings and questions to work on. these are something additional i got from the lecturer, which i thought will be good practise.

alright. back to work now. thurs. classes tonight. fri and so near to weekend.

after pricing, we start building

done with the price of everything. it's a pretty insightful book. it's like an amplified version of how your brain makes decision with the "price" we put on things and choices.

i took about 3 days to finish that. not too bad.

moving on to this book now. as you can see, i'm reading quite a diversed range of books these days. i believe it helps build my general knowledge..and it helps me from being "bored" of any one topic/subject.

after this, i have 3 e-books lined up. switching back to my kindle, provided there are no new books in the climb library.

we watched the vow on sunday and i'm itching to read the book. can't find it in dearie's school library..i'll just wait for it to get more mainstream..

oh ya, the price of everything talked about the price of piracy and free. i am so guilty of piracy because i always want to read for free. the truth is, there are no free lunches in this world!

can it be priced?

This is the new book i am reading. more than a quarter done with this. i like the perspective the author introduces. how alot of things can(not) be measured with a price.

there are another 2 books which are in progress at the moment. it's hard reading them on the go because they are alot more technical and requires one to sit down and go through the calculations..so as to fully make sense of the books. so i think i will leave them for the weekends..when i am at home and can have the luxury of sitting down to read and scribbling out the workings on paper.

rainy day. no run in the morning. raining non stop. i think we'll do RR instead of MR tomorrow. we hate mud on our shoes..hahaha.

less cash for more time

i think quitting the part time job was a good move. i feel i have alot more time to do the things i want and needn't rush over weekend.

weekends can be spent more meaningfully these days.

saturday dearie and i helped out at mummy's. it was really hectic from 5.30pm till almost 10pm. we both smelled like bbq cuttlefish after that..but i thought lending a hand to my mummy was good. she will seldom ask..the shop is currently short handed..our extra pair of hands would have meant something. =)

sunday. we spent morning running at MR, despite the long Sat night. glad we did so..and we rewarded ourselves with wanton mee at pek kio. we could take our time to queue for it..slowly savour the food.. chit chat..without having to rush off to work. we grocery-shopped at ntuc for a while and headed home. took a 2hr nap which really charged us up. feeling refreshed, we started our work. for me i did my revision for the first 2 lessons last week.

i cooked a simple meal for dinner. john bought us all koi bubble tea - my first cup ever! i got to tinkle the ivories for about 40mins and made a good deal of noise.

it's about 10pm now. wanted to work on the presentation slides for a while and head to bed soon.

i thought it was another good weekend spent. no part time job is good! not that i earn alot from it anyway.

face the problems

while i am worried for the problems at the shop, i am sure she will emerge through it. i think problems make us stop to reflect how things are being done now.. maybe there are ways to better streamline the processes, shed unwanted stuff and bring things down to a more manageable load. don't run away from problems, face them.

there are more regulatory items on the list to address. i have sorted one of them out and i will help her shoulder more. quickly wrap up the accounts for apr.. file the necessary returns.. do up the required mandatory registrations and roll up some new reports to churn the necessary quarterly returns.

this weekend is jammed packed. going back to help brief another new staff taking over the part time position. dropping over mummy's.. pick some toiletries up.. revise through my notes and complete my homework.. minute the agm for my own reference.. work on the financial ratios to be presented over meeting. dearie and i are going to hibernate at home on sunday after the run.

i'm really thankful dearie has been helping to shoulder the housework. big hugs!

after the fool

fool's gold is a GOOD book! enjoyed reading it.

now onto something less fun..

i've got 2 technical books sitting in front of me..

and i reserved 3 more books from the library which should reach by next week.

read on!

fool's gold

this is the book i am currently reading. i've left out 3 other books in between this and investing in reits. 2 of 3 are really thin books and the 3rd isn't really worth the mention.

i will start my fics classes at smu this evening and i'm looking forward to it. the fight to get enrolled in this course was not an easy one.

recently had this "on-the-spot" feeling.. dearie said i've only "stood" there for 1 year and to progress will probably take more than 1 year.

i just want to find meaningful things to do. make the best out of my stay here.

apple

reading the newest edition of fortune magazine which was honoring great entrepreneurs.

steve jobs was first on the list.

i like this:

"... on the day Jobs launched the Macintosh, a reporter from Popular Science asked him what type of studies Apple had conducted to ensure there was a market for the computer. In a nearly offended tone, Jobs retorted, "Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?""

i think that only works for people who have that "i've got nothing to lose" attitude. bravo!

DBS CEO earned pay package of $8.8m in 2011

wow..all the talk about ministers' pay being high.. this is what i say is high.

how about translating some of that enormous pay package into a few more basis points of interest for us. the interest we earn on our savings account isn't even sufficient to cover a meal. i guess dbs probably could use all that liquidity, lent it out at 2-4% to corporates, pay us a pathetic 0.05% and keep the rest for these kind of pay packages.

more reits books

this is the new book i'm on this morning. i'm just devouring any reits books i can get my hands on. target to finish it by end of this week or early next week.

for the first time, i managed to borrow the latest fortune magazine from my company's library. hahaha..that is for diligently camping on the library portal every morning!

sale-frenzy weekend

The weekend was well spent. Dearie and I attending this private sale at Mandarin Orchard and we were absolutely appalled at how so many Singaporeans grabbed thousands of dollars worth of branded handbags without batting their eyes. I felt like some pasar malam sale!

We went into a frenzy picking of bags too. Ended with about 5 to 6 of which 3 of them were for myself (the initial plan for to find something for mummy as present). I held onto a prada bag for a good half an hour, made John help us check out the prices on the prada Italian website (we were clueless of the prices of prada bags to begin with) and then finally decided to drop all the bags and walked out of the ballroom empty handed.

Dearie thought I looked disappointed and offered to buy me whichever I chose. I rationalized hard and came to a conclusion that such events can lead to impulsive buying. I thought I will probably walk out of it thinking why did I buy this/that?

The first question I asked myself was, “is it really cheap?” though the advert was brazened with the big 75% off words, it was not necessarily applicable to ALL the bags there. In fact, after checking the original prices, we concluded it was not cheaper than Italy and not very much cheaper than what you could have gotten in the boutiques. Then I asked myself, “given that it is not very cheap, is this what you would have gotten given a choice?” dearie picked an orangy-brown prada wallet for me. honestly, given a choice, I would have gotten a pink one. last but most important question, “do I need it?” answer has to be no. so we walked out, not any richer but not $1.8k poorer.

We went on to taka to find something for mummy and at the same time chanced onto a good buy. I got 2 bags from dearie, a lot prettier and cuter.. and in leather.

Managed to accomplish a fair bit of other things too. dearie and I caught a separation at cathay. We did our rr and mr runs. Visited the library and got 6 books. We went to pek kio for a good brunch on Sunday. I managed to complete mummy’s accounts for feb. cooked curry for dinner. Played the piano. All in all, I thought I spent my time well.

It’s the start of the week again, not one that is too long I hope. I finished one of the REIT book (short 70 pages) on my trip to work. let’s see what else I’ll put up for read next.

new treasure trove found

reading the adapt book gave me such a headache. gave up on it. argh. i hate a lousy read.

dearie brought me to the np library today. wowowowow..it's like a treasure trove! i borrow 6 books just today. enough to last me for 2 months! =D

i'm going to start on the book on REITs. I'm hungry to learn more about the business my company is in.

we spent a splendid day today. got my mum 2 presents and she likes them. =) we ate..watched a separation.. shopped (i've got 2 new bags courtesy of dearie!).. it's a good day!

history book?

i have finished smart trust. it's a feel-good book.

next up is "adapt: why success always starts with failure". i'm one-third through the book and there's this big question mark on the top of my head, "is this a history textbook?" the author goes on and on about the american history in iraq...gosh. i'm never much a history person to begin with..so it's boring me to tears. as i flipped to the next chapter ahead, i thought i saw MORE history in them.

i seldom give up on my books half way (i can only think of black swan), but if i reach half way and it's still rambling about history (not that i destest reading history but i borrowed this book with a different set of expectation. the title looks NO WAY like a history book right?).

i hate a lousy read.. feels like a waste of time sometimes. i can better spend my time reading other more constructive stuff. bleah.

reads for the week

done with this! not a bad read. scanned some pages for keeps

now onto this. last of the 3 books from the library. put in a new request for a new book this morning. hehee

biking on the spot

uneventful weekend after a long week at work. somewhat aimless, but i guess it's sometimes good to just do nothing much.

lots of chatter with the half ironman today and other races when we were at asics getting our trail shoes. i can't help wishing i was part of those some events, which would give me something to talk about and train towards.

the run at mr felt exceptionally difficult these days. it's like chasing a bus that seems to be pulling a distance further away; i don't think i can catch up anymore.

tossing with the idea of meeting bel up for morning runs at the padang. i think it'll give both of us some discipline in running more regularly, though logistically more cumbersome.

i think work has gotten somewhat more interesting with the ongoing project. hopefully that fuels me long enough for the next 9mths, to reach the 2 year mark.

my posts sound boring these days. i only talk about my lack of training. my somewhat boredom at work. books i read. what else can i talk about. hmm.

other avenues of learning

i have been eyeing on a masters of applied economics course with NUS or SMU but i don't have the spare $20-30k to do so.

dearie introduced me to the MIT open courseware. it is a blessing! i hope they do add on more lecture videos to econs and management modules. i started on the introduction to microeconomics during lunch today. 34mins and it was superb! to me it's relearning economics again.. and i can distinctly tell the difference between the lectures i have attended compared to this. can't wait to start on the next chapter. this, to me, is a marvellous way to spend my lunch time - learning.

please upload more lectures! i'll scoure for more lectures on itunes after this. hehe.

received all 3 library books today! woohoo!! i'll start with the macroeconomics one. quite a thick book. i'll give myself a week to complete that.

my SMU course has been approved..so that means i'll get to embark on it come early apr and it'll keep me busy till end of may. assessment is end of Jun. am i weird? i'm actually looking forward to going for courses. and i'm just glad i can spend 3 months doing something that will earn me a small certification plus a baby step towards what i feel will be useful for my career!

learning should never stop and i'm just only getting started =)

holy grail

finished the china price this morning. the book is GOOD!! (one of those i won't mind owning a copy, but unfortunately we haven't got such space to house a mini-library of books)

i am learning and making alot of sense out of the books i read these days.

waiting for this book to come via dispatch.

in the meantime, i have already lined 2 more up after this. i am lucky to find the new titles this morning before the email blast was sent out. reserved 2 out of 6 new titles and i hit my loan limit.

in the meantime, filling the gap between now and the arrival of the holy grail, i'll be going through some tax updates and forex-for dummies.

the china price

done with fixing global finance. it's much a macroeconomics book. good for those with a sound understanding of economics. statistical. not a bad book but i think more for the scholastic readers. most of the time i plug in to music while i read on the trains. for this book, i needed to concentrate to think through what was written and i couldn't even have music in my ears.

for suggestion for the publisher if they do another edition of this book - widen the spacing please? it will help make reading more comfortable.

this new book is soooo timely. i book-dropped the fixing global finance today and this book came in the afternoon. and being kiasu of having some time lapse between the time i finish this book and going onto the next, i have made reservation for a new book which should come by next week. woohoo!

best thing about this book? it's paperback. hahaha!

strange me, i feel invigorated with the reading. can't wait to start on this.

impetus to study

a sudden surge of envy came over me today. seeing local uni grads have such an edge made me feel unjust and tempted to enroll myself into a local uni too.

i wish i could have done so for my masters back then..but local unis claimed they don't recognise acca. sigh. one of my regrets in life is not having the chance to study in a local uni.

i kept scrolling through the sponsorship pages on our intranet. i could try asking for a scholarship, but also being mentally prepared of a likely 2.5years bond. i stopped short though, because i know my bosses are not pro-education.

keeping my fingers crossed, no hiccups to my oct block leave.

friends are posting photos of tokyo marathon. i miss that run soooo much. i wish i can do that run again.

time to read my book and lie in bed. run run tmr morning!

weekend done

it's been quite a fruitful weekend.

finished 2 months' of accounts for mummy.

handed my part time job over to the new lady. the rush this morning affirmed that stopping this job is the right thing to do. won't have to gobble down my sunday breakfast no more!

ran mr this morning. did circuit on sat evening. feeling healthy!

japanese curry attempt was flunked! it ended tasty neither like japanese curry nor chinese curry. blame it on the lousy recipe! hahaha!

never throw away a pair of chaco sandals. stupid tricia threw it away when it could have helped save us 20% on new pairs! arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! so angry with myself. dearie needs a pair for his upcoming camp, so heck the 20% discount. i'm going to get it for him.

visited ling with mummy and dearie today. glad she's doing well after delivering max! he's so tall for a 2 weeks' old!

haven't done much of the reading i intended. oops!

why are the prices of the handsets not coming down? why don't they release some new phones soon? so i can lay my hands on a new hp!

time to watch a tv show and get an early night. back to work tomorrow.

next weekend will be good! dearie's bringing me to movies! =D

new book fix

yay! the book from the library is here!

this is my new read for next week..maybe for the weekend too!

being book-less can be soooo aimless! i don't know where to look at in the mrt. i can literally feel my brain coming to a halt. not good!

something to read keeps my mind stimulated. =)

cycle coe

one of the biggest contributors to the ever rising inflation in singapore is the price of cars.

we read cpi is up 4.8%. last round of coe prices jumped too. we don't need to read the tarot cards to see coe prices staying elevated for the near future. there's a whole slew of rants on coe prices hurting the middle class.

i think we seriously need to rethink our lifestyles. is there a better way to commute to work? i wish i have the option of cycling to work, but i have scoured my entire building to only find one toilet that has a shower. i think more can be done to encourage people to find alternative ways to get to work.

it has to be a paradigm shift in mindset. First, stop lamenting and whining, because that doesn't solve the problem. Second, it's about understanding what are the daily things we do adding towards the environment as a whole. look at the drastic climate change we are already experiencing. try taking a deep breathe in cities like beijing and hongkong. what kind of a world have we created at our convenience? Third, corporations must stop thinking it's all about profit. it's not. what are they doing at the expense of our future generations?

so we ask, how much can we do as it's just an effort of one or few. but imagine if everyone start being more conscientious of what goes into the environment and does abit. then the impact will be great.

should i write to the big big boss and start asking him to do more for staff who are keen to find alternative ways to get to work? afterall, we pride ourselves with the many green projects we do, don't we? haha

ongoing efforts

with our ongoing efforts to improve ourselves, dearie and i took up a new challenge - learning and re-learning chinese.

john has kindly loaned dearie a K2 chinese textbook, which he has embarked on saturday. i was pretty appalled how difficult chinese is for the children these days, i didn't remember chinese being so tough back in my kindy years.

for me, being the cheapo i always am, will be attempting to do my own reading instead of enrolling for the chinese business courses earlier planned. i think cost is one factor and not having a friend to go with can make it quite lonely.

hence, i resolved to start reading My Paper on a daily basis, as it has a fairly short chinese section, which i deem manageable for my snail-pace chinese reading. in effort to be more environmentally friendly, i am going to read the e-version (though the toggling of the page is proving to be such a nuisance).

Hopefully we can both keep this up, because knowing how to read, write and comprehend chinese is an asset in the coming decade at least.

I'm doing a little research on the S-Reits as part of work now. Pretty interesting to go through all the results and presentation slides from all the S-Reits. Should I stay on in the Reits industry? If yes, should i do the CMFAS reits management paper? after so long, i'm still circling around this.

Not reading any book at the moment. sent an inquiry to check on my reit book that was suppose to come.

running has been on a slackened mode. something inside of me says i should be more disciplined about it but i guess that's not of much importance for dearie for now. it is hard for me to ask for more than what i am already given.

alright..back to reading. ought to give my cv some botox as well, spruce it up a little. =)