One of my friends had ILYFAE on his MSN for the longest time.

I had absolutely no idea what it meant. Was it an anagram ? Was it code ?

And then after a few months, it just came to me. Just like that. It had been a happy day.

I Love You Forever And Ever.

How could I be so stupid ?

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Heartbroken.



I had at last count, some really good hair. Er, I mean hair length. I really liked the front. All I asked for was a trim at the front, clear up the ears, and thin out the back.



I ended up with a schoolboy haircut.



ARGHHHH !!!



It was my own fault really. Since I reached the hairdresser at 7.55, and finding out it closes at 8, I walked to the student place - APT. Cut my hair there. Argh. Now you know why you should never rush important decisions, such as where to cut your hair.

Now I have to wait for it to grow back again.

The only good thing is, they thought I WAS a schoolboy.

...I should have asked them what year....................

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Post number 501. It is halfway to a thousand posts! Who knows what will happen by then ? I used to be quite amused by the number 501, especially as it is quite a common sight in Melbourne, on big buildings.

I have worked at the new place for four days now and I am freaking exhausted. Let us play with that little pro and con list shall we ?

Pro : Formal Mondays. Casual rest of the week.
Con : It is middle of nowhere, not near the city or my home.
Pro : Free bus takes you to food.
Con : Not much choice then.
Pro : Great to have people who care and are friendly.
Con : Left behind great people who are friendly already.
Pro : No more city jam !!
Con : Have to cancel my city parking and gym.
Pro : Can leave work around 6, which is pretty much on time, takes 20 minutes to home.
Con : Have to start work at 7 am. Damn early.
Pro : Learning absolutely brand new stuff.
Con : Am not very good at it yet.

Well basically it is a good thing I guess in the end. It is a totally new environment. And this will help me learn to adapt and be more flexible and that is one my life's goals anyway. Also it is great to meet even more people and also a good time to learn more about the back end of banking. Thanks very much to the new GAs who are actualy all older than me for taking such good care of me so far and bringing me to eat, and helping me write macros to reduce my workload. And also I get to work in a mere 20 minutes at slow speed without any traffic jams at all and this counts for after work as well so it really reduces a lot of stress for me. People at my current department are very nice, super nice in fact, and are willing to teach me all I want to know. It is also a good break for me from the more hectic life at head office.

However, it can get very tedious. There is a whole list of things to be done daily, weekly and monthly and I was not too pleased that I was sort of pushed into a role to learn as much as I can so that I can replace a lady about to give birth next month. The work is also unglamourous and probably noone would be grateful for the work outside the department. The hours are killer and I am exhausted since am sleeping at the same time but have to get to work earlier. Might even have to work on some weekends if I cannot manage my work at optimal levels.

But when all is said and done it is a good thing. And lucky that I am not doing anything else at the moment, like CFA or FRM, so that I can fully concentrate on this job. Because it is a job which requires a lot of organisation and careful planning. Just hope that I am able to take my leave in January without problem like I planned to.

And on the bright side, went for karaoke last night to farewell a beloved manager mentor and friend. It was a fun karaoke as we shouted and screamed and I guess it was above my expectations as most of the people there were aged around 40. But they had lots of fun and were very sporting as well and provided a lot of entertainment for the younger people too. Lots of gossip flew around as well as jokes. *Interesting.

Got home around 1 am. Totally pooped. And had to work at 7. Which is why I am going to bed right now.

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All too soon, I realised that this will be my 500th post.

And as I type this in a relatively relaxed mood, I think a lot.

Thinking about...how tired I am from jogging in the morning, and about which route I will take to work tomorrow, whether I should cancel my gym and try another one somewhere, and planning when to start studying for CFA 3, wondering what my new coworkers will be like, wondering how the Singapore Marathon will be, which place I will work at in 6 months time, and which human pet's price I should increase, whether to keep on at it, what to eat for dinner, what should I wear tomorrow, about the M2M song playing right now, about my trips next year, about Christmas, New Year, the new blog layout....lotsa stuff.....

And then, also that since I started this blog, it has been 3 years. And a bit more. I would count the exact days, except that I am also changing my layout at the same time, and I do not really want to click through it yet. 500 posts in 3 years. And what a time it has been. In these 3 years past, the experiences gathered, the people met, the things done, the places gone, the emotions felt..........unspeakable. Speechless when I realise that a person can do so much in just a short time span of 3 years ? What wonders one should be able to do with a lifetime !

And yet, what more do I need to do ? What more do I want to do ?

This is worth thinking about. 23 years 3 months and 26 days is a long time to have been around. More important things in the world have happened since I was around. Would I do something that could be important to someone somewhere hence ? I hope so. While selling happiness could be a really great business model, just giving away free samples can feel great too. Last night for example. Went to a lot of trouble for some people. Not particularly fantastic friends, but, then well worth it. We had our closer moments. Amazing how good you can feel afterwards.

Tomorrow I will start working at a new place. New people. new culture, new place. Need to get some things sorted out, like parking, and gym. Massive upheavals. Interesting. And yet scary at the same time. What if people there do not like me ?

But I guess, that would be pretty impossible.



Update 1 : The layout thing is freaking me out. No changes for now. Too much emotional attachment.

Update 2 : Feeling the love tonight. *Happy Sigh*

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What a hell of an exam ?

First, I think I had too much tea so I could not sleep properly. Had a very fitful night, and tossed and turned and dreamt weird things. At one point I was arranging my wallet, and at another point, I was trying to convince people around me that I wanted to go to Africa. Weird.

When I got there, pissed me off. We were supposed to go in at 8.10 to start at 9 am. But the proctors only allowed us in at 8.40 am. Worse still, she could not speak English properly and was so slow in searching for the names on the list. Useless !

Once inside, my goodness the people who take this exam are weird. Except me of course. Anyway, there were a few people who acted as if they had never taken an exam before. They brought in bags and huge water bottles. And then another one even worse, he told the proctor that bringing in water bottles was against the rules, according to the printed slip he had. But if he had even looked at it, he would have discovered that the slip he was holding was also not supposed to be brought into the room! Kiasu like hell.

Then of course you had those people who had to be the first out the door. And those that had to put up their hands to ask stupid !! questions. Cannot stand these people .....

Yea well had a lot more to bitch about, but by now, I am a bit over it. And over the exam. Will try not to think about it for the next two months until the results come out.

But it was damn hard. Damn.

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7 days before exam : "Shit I need to pass. Shit I have two pimples. Shit. What is for lunch?"

5 days before exam : "Shit I need to pass. Shit I have two pimples. Shit. What is for lunch?"

3 days before exam : "Shit I need to pass. Shit I have two pimples. Shit. What is for lunch?"

1 day before exam : "Shit I need to pass. Phew pimples are going. What is for lunch?"

ARGHHHHHHH !!!!

THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO GO>>>!!!! HELP !! HAVE NO TIME FOR HUMAN PETS !! WITHDRAWAL SYNDROME ! DISCOVERED CIRCLE OF FRIENDS AND IS ALL DONE NICELY !! HELP! !!!!

STUDY !!!!!!!!!

Gosh. That was a bit dramatic. Give me just another 5 percent more, and I am sure I will pass. Just a little bit more to go. For those of you who are keeping score, I am up to the high sixties now. Gosh. Stress.

~Stress~

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What is new ?

Then again what is not new ?

Life changes every day and one can hardly plan ahead sometimes for fear that by the time it is time for the plan to be rolled out, things have changed so much that the plan is not feasible. Maybe someone who is flexible and adaptable to frequent changes in their lives might feel at home with these conditions, but then again, Man is a creature of habit. We do things well when we do them over and over again, and we things over and over again if we do them well.

Just last night, I thought it would be fun to turn the air conditioning on and snuggle under my doona from Australia to get some of that feeling back. I sank into a blissful sleep. At first. And then it became too hot. But after I threw it off, it was too cold and then I got a minor flu today. You see !? My body does not respond well to violent changes.

And yet, secretly I have always had dreams to do something amazing. Something different. Something so mindblowing noone would ever think that I would be the instigator of it. And I am still trying. Well maybe not earth shattering yet, but maybe one small step at a time. I still surprise people around me from time to time with what I do and say. And they have to do a double take and think if I really just said what I just said. It is funny. But then again, I do feel really comfortable with certain people doing certain things. So, I guess that is a part of me that is holding back.

I would like (not sure if love...well maybe sometimes) to take a year off to do the following :

1. Occupation : Explorer. Travel around Africa South America and Europe to play with natives and experience forests, real outdoor beauty and do lots of volunteer work like building schools and houses. Should probably convince ParkyBear to go with me..
2. Occupation Singer. At some weirdo bar in America after winning some crappy competition and serve pancakes for breakfast at a trailer restaurant.
3. Occupation : Gambler. Gamble at Poker / Mahjong professionally. Really professionally. As in 10 days long competitions without break for sleep/meals.
4. Occupation : Male Model. Work out for awesome model-like muscles and then be a model. (yea the bimbo in me...) But I dunno... LOL !! (This is an imaginary list right !! So I can do anything I want !!)
5. Occupation : Racer. Like F1. I dunno why. This is something I like to do. But then not on a racetrack, more like street racing dodging among cars on the freeway or suburbs.
6. Occupation : Assassin. Or at least get some assassin training. Like Mr and Mrs Smith types. Wah. And learn how to store massive amounts of information in brain and throw knives and shoot guns and detonate bombs.
7. Occupation : Pastry Chef. This is something I used to love to do and I want to be able to make those like giant desserts or very intricately designed pastries and enter into competitions and do ice carving and cream decorating and stuff like that !
8. Occupation : Actor. At least in Broadway, or in Hollywood. Just to do something that I really think that I can do. Would like to do a musical at Hollywood ? Lol. That would be really fun.
9. Occupation : Personal Shopper. Just so that I could spend a lot of money. Since I get bored of most of the things I buy after a while anyway, so it is just as well that I am spending someone else's money on things. I would pick and choose and pay and just give it away.
10. Occupation : Male Host. Like in Japan. I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHY I want to do this at all. Perhaps like NiqBear said, it is the male slut in me. Lol Am I slutty ? How can ? ?!?!?!? Maybe it is just the lifestyle that I like.

Lol. Looking at that list seems like I do have quite a crazy list. Who knows, if I do do it, I will let you know.

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I am so bored of studying, but it has only been one day. Though I realise that this is the most unprepared I have ever been for these type of exams, so at least I have some motivation. I do not want to fail since I paid for these exams. Haha. Typical.

Been listening to the Hairspray and HSM2 soundtracks a lot. And of course after watching The Producers again, also that. Music is so uplifting. Keke. Especially the hairspray one. Haha. Maybe it is because of the name that appears so often in the songs. Keke.

Meanwhile, I think I broke my Facebook. It will not allow me to login. Oops. Maybe I overused it on my Human Pets. That has been such an addiction. I suppose one cause for it being so addictive is that you have to protect your pets from thieves and also there is also a major competitive thing out there. Also I suppose it helped that I could access it from work and that the connection was really fast. Keke. Well at first it was SoBear, SharBear and NiqBear who were really into it, now it is DamBear. In fact, it is almost only him and NiqBear who are regular users, except for a short term cameo appearance by MKBear.

Hehe. Well I guess we have to be addicted to something at some point. Makes life more interesting.

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I am so glad to be home.

Drove around for a while too, I never realised I missed driving so much !

Hi Malaysia...kekeke..you are not so bad.... :)

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Yikes, super sienz. So Sien that I watched “Mr and Mrs Smith” again….and then watched “The Island” straight after that. You see, the evils of television. I think it is very lucky that I do not have Astro at home. I would be spending hours and hours watching television, before work, after work….. Crazy. But I must say, one of the few reasons that I will be slightly reluctant to go home tomorrow would be the fact that I would be unable to watch HSM2 Dance-along on Disney Channel at 7.30 pm. And also Disney Channel Dance-along right after that. Cannot believe that I will be missing it. Well at least I did manage to watch it three times and also watched the Sing-along version as well. I wonder if SharBear has managed to watch it yet, since we tried to watch it twice in Melbourne but failed miserable ? Kekeke.

The good news is that I have managed to go through my whole syllabus again, but currently my scoring is hovering around the 60s. I really need to pump it up to the early 80s or high 70s if I want to be sure to pass my exam next Saturday. Stress. The plan is to do a mock paper on Thursday, a public holiday, and then go to work on Friday. Then super duper mega power double bonus level up intense study for a week from this Saturday onwards till the exam on the 17th. Sigh. Not much life for a week. But I suppose if I pass it, even two weeks without life also I am willing to go through. The funny thing is, right after the exam, I already have my books for my third level of the CFA examination next June, so technically I could start studying for that. But right now, I will probably only start around the 8th of December, that gives me around 3 weeks of break. Crazy. OK. I will not even try to think about that first. First……FRM exam.

Need to study like crazy !!

Oh and for the past few weeks, I have been sleeping with my couch cushions instead of my pillows. I have discovered that the cushions are way more comfortable than those flattish pillows. They are quite thick and superbly comfortable. They remind me of someone too. HAHAHA. Big fat cushions. Kekeke. That is another thing I would loathe to leave behind.

All in all, I must say that I am really glad to be going home tomorrow. I can honestly say that I have actually been looking forward to tomorrow since 2 weeks ago. Oopz. I suppose I would have enjoyed this trip a lot more if I came from Malaysia, but then again, I came almost directly after Melbourne, and hardly anywhere can be even compared to my beloved Melbourne. It is almost sacrilegious to compare cities with Melbourne. Haha. I guess that would be why I spent so much time and money here, to try to convince myself that this place was good too. Well, in my month here, I have been on tours, went to top beaches in the world, great citadels, tombs, war tunnels, eaten at 5 star restaurants, and also a crazy amount of massages, and I cannot say that I have had a bad time. But of course, it came with a lot of expense. Especially for massage. Though cheap individually, for me this has been a record month for massage. And yet I have not even been to these places as much as GANay who at one point, went every day for more than 2 weeks ! Total visits in his two month stint here definitely number more than 40. Crazy. Now that is insane. Well I do not blame him, they are really cheap here, and some of them even feel better than those that you can find in KL. Now who would have thought I could enjoy massages so much ? Not me. (I got used to stripping off in front of people now though. LOL). Haha. Oh well, I think I am almost massaged off this year. Would be fine without any more this year. Though who knows ?

So technically, I have spent more money than I would have normally, but then again, since there are some allowances that I receive, technically, I still earn a little bit more than I would have usually. I suppose if I had tried, I would have been able to save a lot more, but then again, I told you how much I spent right….. Sigh. Ooooo. One good thing here is that every time I top up my credit for my prepaid phone, they give me twice as much credit. Very good. And very useful, especially when I call overseas. Good luck for your exams everyone.

Ooooo today is the Melbourne Cup. Over here, the Sheraton Hotel is having a party for it, with a USD100 buy in to a event with free flow beer, champagne, food and huge giant screen televisions. And since people with overseas passports can gamble here, there are bound to be people putting some money on the horses. Wish I could go, but I am stuck at work. Perhaps a lunch time jaunt to the local Aussie bar ? You would be surprised at the amount of Australians here. There are so many that you could usually find one at any bar or pub after work. There is even a huge International Australian School of Vietnam for pre-school up to Year 10. Whoa !

Anyway….

Go horsie Go !!!
And I better study……la…………..haihs,……,never felt so unprepared for an exam before. Die.

Oh !!!

A famous model just stepped into the branch..and everyone went crazy in the office, and some of them were crowding round the security camera screen, and I went out, took off my office tag, and went to take a look. Whoa. Supermodel man……..kekekeke. Little excitements to take off the drag of working life. People who are graduating and going to work next year, let this be a lesson to you. You should let the smallest things should brighten up your day, so that most if not all your days will be brightened.

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I am now typing this in a dingy little internet cafe. Because GANay's laptop has totally broken down, I am reduced to this. It is quite fun though, especially since there is nothing to be seen on the keyboard so I have to totally type on instinct. Works fine most of the time as long as I type normally, but it gets a little tricky if I look at the keyboard so usually I just stare at the screen. Kekeke..

Today I went to the cinema to watch I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry. It was alright, and managed to fill some time. I am a little sick of studying. The internet is super slow though so I cannot spend too much time on my beloved human pets. Kekeke. Well I guess the craze will only last just a little longer, maybe about 2 weeks more.

I have a headache and sudden bouts of cold. This just makes me want to go home even more. I guess I could learn to like this place, but right now, I really need a good dose of home. Just to sleep in my own bed would be good. And to drive. Have not driven for so long...

Ok..just a bored post...

Will get back on Monday...

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