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!