2010

DOSHer's Unroutinely is indeed unroutine but 2010 has been a great year. In February, I enrolled myself in Elementary French and Japanese courses but I did not complete the latter due to lack of chemistry between me and sushi. French fries is much more interesting, seriously!

In June, I went to Sheffield for my final semester. It was a great experience and it certainly made me a better rounded person. During that period, Sheffield suffered from a severe influx of Malaysian students and I suppose we had contributed a lot to Sheffield's economy.

Exams!

Upon completion of my degree programme, I went backpacking with a group of friends. The trip was not a smooth one, but it was really enjoyable. I came to realise that French is so damn useful, it allowed me to talk to the native Parisians and Genevians (like a kindergarten kid though). Backpacking let us see more and immerse ourselves completely in European history and culture. But of course, you would need a reliable travel guide (like Lonely Planet) to avoid you from traveling aimlessly!

Barcelona

I later spent a few days in Cambridge, to meet up with my cousin and helped her in her architecture project. I had a great time helping her analysing pedestrians' walking behaviour. The project was rather unusual but it allowed me to view ordinary things from extraordinary perspectives.

In Cambridge, with Rebecca

In mid-October, I revisited my aunty who stays in Southern England, traveled to Bath (a really beautiful city!) and spent a few weeks in London. Thousands of pictures were taken in the past few months. The pictures tell a lot. Unfortunately, I find it hard to describe them in words.

Time flies and it is time to kickstart my career. I have attended quite a number of interviews and got some offers, it is certainly hard to decide as some graduate positions have four rounds of interviews and I am still waiting for the third round. For now, most probably I am going back to OSK Investment Bank, they have offered me a position in Corporate Finance. It is not gonna be easy for sure. Learning curve is really steep and it is not unusual to work until near-midnight if there are a lot of deals. It is time for me to fasten my seat belt and ready for all the uncertainties and challenges ahead. I believe that every cloud has a silver lining. :)

Heyya!!

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It has been 3 months plus! I miss you so much bloggie!!

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By the way, my internship ended on the 15th and I am gonna be a full-time student again! =)

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It was a great experience I must say. Remember I took 3 days of MC after 4 days of working? Yup, bad beginning for my first few weeks (lunchtime was boring too).

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Luckily, CITIPEEP was born. CITIPEEP consists of a bunch of my classmates doing internship in Citibank (they still have 1 more week to go.. hehe). Having lunch with them was fun, like having Honey Stars as breakfast, rather than plain cornflakes, although we usually ate in almost the same place. Lunch time arrived faster with click-able lunchmates hey.

'Introducing the new' CITIPEEP!

Alright, back to my internship. They paid me peanuts. But I did not let peanuts demotivate me. My weekdays were kinda fixed routines. I gotta wake up at 6.45am and leave my apartment by 8am. Then, I had to endure the public transportation nightmare for the next 20 to 35 minutes. If I was early, I usually alight at KLCC station and tapau Subway breakfast (RM5.9 only, sandwich with cuppa), or else I just eat in the cafeteria. Official working hours 8.45am - 6.15pm. But for most of the time, I was among the first to leave - at 6.45pm.

As I was attached to the asset management operations division, that means for most of the time I was performing operational tasks, creating and fine-tuning operations manuals. Operations enhanced my spreadsheet knowledge but it is certainly not a division I would like to work in the future. Nevertheless, I had the opportunity to spend 35% of my time in Fund Management division, where I prepared TWRR and daily portfolio performance reports for fund managers, explored Bloomberg, attended Bloomberg courses and analyst briefings.

It was not entirely smooth-sailing though, I did make some silly mistakes. How I wish I was born to be ultra-meticulous. Lessons learned. I will never repeat any of them again. I also learned the importance of 'tai ngan sek yan', though the people I befriended were mostly humble and nice. I ain't any richer, but the brain is certainly heavier. =)

By the way, went to see the dentist today and got my very first dental fillings in 21 years. Quite an achivement huh. Hm.. 1 week holiday seems not enough for me. I still have lotsa outstanding stuff to do! Gtg...

*Pfft*

Dengue Scare

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I woke up at 9.30am with rashes on my body. I wasn't feeling well yesterday and gotta take a tablet of paracetamol. So I alerted my parents and they asked me to go to Tawakal Hospital immediately as I might need hospital admission if Aedes really bullied me.

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Then I was wondering, how could mosquitoes nowadays travel so high up to my 13th floor apartment or 15th floor office? Please don't tell me that they have University of Mosquitoes to teach them how to take lift or duplicate a passcard to enter to my office.

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Mosquito the fund manager? _

Anyway I did flag down a cab immediately and ask him to send me to the hospital. The doctor referred me to the 3rd floor lab for a blood test. The result was ready within 10minutes and I brought it to the doctor for analysis. My platelet level was in the low-side of the normal range. He said it could be a virus and asked me to come back again tomorrow for another blood test. If my platelet falls again, then it's dengue. If not, then it could be a normal virus. "So what medication you'd prescribe?" I asked. He said there was no medication for most viral conditions and I'll have to depend on my own body to fight off the virus. How I wish the virus defects from their political party and become Yakult's good cultures.

So I mentioned that I just told my parents, right? You know, I received so many many calls from my family and relatives after that. Multiplier effect huh? Hey, I'm 21 okay? I know how to take care of myself. No worries, I'll drink lotsa lotsa water and go back for another blood test tomorrow and keep them posted!

I'm really unhappy that I'm sick, but I need to be positive. See what I've got --->

Another day of good rest (and blood test).

DOSHer's Giveaway

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I don't like to gamble cos gambling is too technical. Only smart people know how to gamble. For me, the only game I know is blackjack. But hey, I'm already 21.. I wanna try not to be that innocent anymore.

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So, I decided to try the lottery for fun:

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Today lovey-dovey couples receive gifts from their loved ones. So I decided to give something big to my blogreaders. I bought the whole entire Valentine's Day for all of you.

I'll check the result tomorrow. If we are lucky enough to strike the 'Valentine's Day', I'm gonna give away (part of, hehe!) the prize money. What you need to do is to email me "my money leh?" to claim your money. It doesn't matter even if you email me after tomorrow. So, let's keep our fingers-crossed. ;p

p.s.: Yup, 5bucks for an Ibox betting is seriously low.. Lalala.. I don't care cos it's the heart that matters! Teeheehe~

First Day at Work

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Today I started my practical training at OSK Asset Management. It took me 40minutes to reach my workplace in Jln. Ampang- thanks to the severe acute 'traffic' jam in the station here. During non-peak hours, 15minutes is all I need as Ampang Park is only 5 stations away from Wangsa Maju.

I went up to the 4th floor of OSK Plaza to report myself, then an HR lady named Kay Ling - one of my interviewers when I attended the interview in December, brought me to OSKAM- on 15th floor.

I met my Deputy Head, which was also one of my interviewers- Mr. Teh. He introduced me to everyone in the Investment Operations Department. The whole department has only 8 people (including me). My desk is facing Tokio Marine building, but if I would like to have a look at the KLCC, I just have to swing my chair 180-degree. ;p

My cubicle desk: Others are all using LCD monitors, except for the server and me. Heh.

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Fund managers trade in the trading room, which is attached to the operations room. Whenever I enter or exit the office, I will have to pass by the trading room. The CIO's room is in between both rooms.

I spent most of my time reading manuals and research reports after filling up application forms for my passcard and login account. Everyone was very busy today, tsk. Mr. Teh said the Head of Department (which is currently on leave for a week) would request me to complete an assignment on futures & options when she is back. HR Kay Ling also asked me to write a weekly report on what I have learned for each particular week. Wow. That's gonna ruin my weekends.

I had my lunch with Mr. Teh and his friend on the 5th floor of Menara Citibank- which is right opposite OSK Plaza. My afternoon was almost the same as my morning, read and read and read. I clocked out at 6.30pm and walked to Suria KLCC. Reached home at 9.30pm.

It was a tiring day. Good night. =)

p.s.: I'm gonna put my fingers-crossed, hoping that i won't dream of what I read today.

~~Bank of England cuts interest rate, bankruptcy in Japan rises, Singapore economy may shrink 5.8% in Q1!! Argh!~~

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冬至

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Did my dad make the right decision by sending me to vernacular school? Uh hm. I learned a lot of things that I wouldn't have learned if I were to study in national school. Despite the fact that I'm bad in Chinese calligraphy and proverbs, I'm still glad that I know something that my sisters don't. Sometimes they will ask me to be their translator, but out of the three, I'm the one who needs an English dictionary the most.

Yup, dad made the right decision, but I have a better one for my future kids. I would send them to vernacular primary schools, but the rest should be spent in national missionary schools. It's necessary to be able to write and speak, but learning 300 Chinese proverbs, literary Chinese/文言文, and calligraphy are superfluous. You don't need them to understand what does 'Dongzhi' mean, right?

冬至快乐! Cheers. =)

汤圆, 鱼丸, 与我

Tagged by Nicole Phang

1. Each player of this game starts off with 15 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself.

2. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 15 weird things/habits/little known facts as well as state the rules clearly.

3. At the end, you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names.

4. No tags back!
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1. I splurge on food but it's hard for me to gain weight.

2. I often shop and eat with 1gb of songs. Many of my friends can't accept it.

3. I love cities and skyscrapers.

4. In 2006, I spent a night at a 24-hour McDonalds outlet in Bukit Bintang- just to check if the city sleeps at night.

5. I used to travel with light rail for fun (i.e. instead of going straight to my destination, I travelled to the other end before heading back to my intended station).

6. I love to observe commuters, I don't know why.

7. I'm afraid of reptiles and creepy crawly things.

8. I don't understand why some people throw paper box into the bin without flattening it first.

9. I've a habit of eating my tomorrow's breakfast today.

10. I don't understand why some people love dropping Friendster comments asking me questions like where am I studying so and so, as the answers were actually on the page they browsed!

11. I laugh at my own jokes.

12. I get a little frustrated when my friends mistreat my serious talking as jokes.

13. I tend to overestimate my own abilities.

14. I'm very afraid of poverty.

15. I'm not weird. ;p

*I tag noone =)*