Post-entry: GLP Symposium to Canberra

March 2009 GLP Symposium to Canberra

I'm back to Sydney from the trip on Sunday, but only manage to make an entry today, thanks to:

1. ACST300 and ACST 356 quiz which I hadn't done any before the trip and was obviously freaking out on Sunday night.

2. My frantic attempt of catching up with the the task I would've done should I not be in Canberra over the weekends e.g. reading lecture materials etc

3. My totally packed university schedule !

Many people gave me that kinda surprised look when I told them I was gonna visit Canberra for a second time in two years. Whether it qualifies as a 'boring' place really does depend on the attitude you carry there.

The fact that I skipped a day of class and had to forgo my weekends for this Symposium itself will set it different from all my other trips to other places. There are hell lots of stuff to catch up on since I am back, million of thanks to my taking third year actuarial studies. So the sacrifice is big, how stupid I would've be if I hadn't made the best out of this symposium.

I guess the most valuable thing I gained is the experience of getting along with people from all sorts of background. This may sound simple, in fact I'd come across with many people who claim themselves as a 'people person' who can talk and socialize with anyone. But the thing is, are these people REALLY wanna get to know the others? Or are they doing so merely to prove the fact that they are sociable? I think it's human nature to find it hard to genuinely love talking to another person from a very different background e.g. non-domestic Chinese talking to Caucasian, when the two possess possibly conflicting values on life. It takes lots of effort, and lots of positive attitude to actually engage and sustain a good conversation --> by saying this I mean conversations that stretch beyond the standard courteous lines like "How have you been?","What course are you doing?""Do you like your course?How do you find it?" etc etc. Of course these are what we'll usually start off with but to me a successful interaction with another person is to share on something more, such as cultural values, family values, career/life goals etc. I guess that is the main point of organizing on GLP's side of organising this event.

It was a great pleasure getting to know the other participants of the trip. I've kinda amazed with some of the way of thinking and attitude carried by people not from a commerce background. They are such a fun bunch of people to be honest. I sat next to Daniel, an 18- year-old Art student during dinner on the last night, and he was absolutely amazing at talking about himself. He is so passionate about politics and globalisation that he just couldn't stop talking about it, and most importantly, he actually started to make me see the interesting part of this area which I previously consider as 'dead and boring'.

One interesting conversation I had was with two exchange girls from Canada. They obviously have Malaysian housemate(s) who told them "Malaysian Government won't actually let the nons choose their universit degree" and were keen to find out the statement's truthfulness from me. It took me sometime to explain to them what 'Affirmative Action' means and why it is happening to Malaysia. These two girls have been on exchange shortly after they started their degree and the places they had travelled so far will make you go like 'Wow! I wish I had that chance'. Interestingly, they became vegetarian after reading some books, and hate clubbing (they told me that at Pancake Parlour after I admitted that I am not a clubbing person). One girl went like "I just don't understand why people like that. You're just making a fool of yourself!"-->I give 5 stars to this line.

On the third night I went out for a failed attempt of finding 7-eleven with 3 girls from China. Two of them are master students who did well in their previous job and are seeking more knowledge and opportunities in Australia. Another girl is doing her final year of Finance. They are not the typical mainlander who are shy and would not talk to people from another nationality. We hang out at one of the girl's unit and chatted on pretty much everything under the sun, from Chinese cultures, how difficult to make friends with some local people who are not open-minded enough to accept differences between people, gossips, what we plan to progress to after our degree etc etc. It was so much more fun than going to a club!

Some people just love drinking. I'm curious as to whether they really like alchohol and dance etc or are they liking it just to be accepted by their peers. I personally don't see the fun of excessive drinking. You get drunk and get into trouble and spend heaps of money on unnecessary things that wouldn't add any values to you as a person. Moderate drinking is fine (wine is the best!) but I just don't appreciate some guys asking the whole group to get drunk together --> as if we know you people enough to do that?!

I am not gonna talk at length on the places I went on this trip (coz it's not too much different from my previous visit!), it is not the most important thing I gain from this trip anyway.

The only three things worth mentioning are the Parliament House, the War Memorial and Glenloch Farm. The Parliament is what I thought I have not had enough last time. The greatest event of this symposium was sitting in the Chamber of House Representatives. It was so much fun watchin a Parliament live! I got to see Kevin Rudd! He was awesome with his speech and great at debates. No wonder he is the Prime Minister of Australia.

This is real democracy!

War Memorial was amazing as well, but sadly we didn't get enough time to complete the tour. Oh how much I love the tour guide. He is a volunteer at War Memorial and has a father who worked in Australian army in the 60s and 70s. I like the way he introduced us to all the past wars that Australian had engaged in and managed to make it not sound like a boring history lesson.

No wonder Australian tourism is one of the best in the world. They really have good tour guides.

Lastly about Glenloch Farm, I'll let the pirctures tell the story.
"Ladies, we're gonna strip you off one day!"

"I told you...." She is naked!

Not the forget: Special thanks to Jason, Kaixun and Suyin for arranging a meet-up at Pancake Parlour. The pancakes suck to the tiniest bit BUT it was great to see you guys remaining the fastastic bunch I know from our SAM days!

GLP Symposium - Canberra

During summer holiday, I posted one or two entries a month and thought it was reasonable, coz the internet connection at my home is simply toooooo slow. But somehow the laziness builds up and right now in Sydney where I have fairly quick internet speed I am still posting an entry a month. 懶人就是懶人。

Tomorrow I am going on a trip with GLP to Canberra. It's gonna be my second visit there (and I haven't thought that would actually happen after my first trip there two years ago). But hey, here I am heading to the capital city of Australia, this time not as a visitor but a DELEGATE. Sounds cool? Yea, that is how Bec, Anneke and Chloe (GLP team) called us. Jim Farmer must be like 'wow!' when we showed him the letter from Bec Forrester which refers to us as delegates....damn important you know!

Paid $470 for the trip of 4 days 3 nights. It has increased by $90 from last year due to reduced government subsidy on Macquarie University I s'pose. But overall I am still pretty happy with the itinerary and would look forward to seeing Canberra again, this time not just from the tourism side. We are going to watch a Parliament siting, LIVE! Wow, isn't that cool? (I was darn envious that time when KaiXun told us how many times he has sat in for n times, I finally got to do it myself).

Besides, would be keen to catch up with some of the old mates from my college days. KaiXun, Jason, SuYin (did I miss out anyone? sorry my memory is bad). Fellow Taiping ppl Yeam is there too, as well as some of those that I got to know when they visited Sydney.

Summer holiday is over =(

I'm back in Sydney since yesterday morning, local time 0745. Had the most pleasant flight ever. No delay. No unnecassary waiting. No boredom at the airport and on the aircraft. No sucky aircraft food. And lots of pretty sexy cabin crew members.

Though I'd stayed in S'pore for 6 months before, it was my first time inside Changi Airport, and it amazes me to bits. Everything is so good. Excellent surroundings with lots of real trees and flowers around the airport and the fake ones inside the buildings. Lots of colourful, comfortable sofas for the tired passengers like myself. And oh not to forget the fast and most importantly free wifi, no wonder I was not bored at all waiting for about 4 hours before my connecting flight. The new Terminal 3 is so canggih. Everywhere in the airport, water bottle filler is sensor-based.

I was lucky to get a huge, new airbus aircraft. Everything is new. The seat, the gadgets, the entertainment set (that small TV in front of each seat). There are lots of good movies, TV series, games, documentaries, tourist info programmes, music albums etc. Even the remote control is new.

Thanks to the entertainment kit I only slept for 3 hours on the plane. I collapsed on my bed the moment I arrived at MUV. Slept for another 2 hours. Woke up to do some laundry as my bed sheets, pillow case etc were hell dusty after 3 months untouched. Slept again before going shopping for some food to keep myself alive.

This morning: Tried to readjust my bio clock back to aussie time. Didn’t quite succeed, only woke up at 9am (or 6am in Malaysia). I slept till 10am each morning after ending my internship. So 9am is not bad really. Wash-up abit, ate my brunch which is a cincai-lly made gonlou-min.

Then off I went to spend my money, huge sum, $150 for first Gandarsil vaccination. It is to prevent cervical cancer and I will have to fork out that money for two more times later on. Heart pain for the money, but health is priceless!

Well, after that it’s history. I’m sitting in front of my desk, cursing the unstable internet connection, typing this in word document before copying and pasting it on blogger when the line comes back.

I'll do with a little update (boss is not around)

Met a new intern from Equity Investment & Trading during lunch time. Pretty happy to chat with ppl in a similar position as myself. She looked quite raw, well, just like myself in my first and second week. Funny thing is, she saw me talking to Sze Huey on facebook and asked me if I know her lol.


I realise how much I've settled in this new environment of working with people who are constantly rushing to finish their job. Investment banking ppl are all like that, so said my mentor. They work like dogs (not in a negative way, just means they work like crazy).


Assistant director in my department asked me during lunch what specialisation I'm looking at for my actuarial degree, and I couldn't give a specific answer. To be honest I don't have a clear idea yet. What I know is I'm liking my course much, though occasionally I still grumble about how much work, tests and exams we face each and every semester.

Never really believe that student life is way more stress-free as compared to working routine in a big city, until recently I am starting to re-consider the truthfullness of the statement.

Yesterday Tho Kin (my buddy aka mentor) asked me to help with a spreadsheet, which proves to be the most annoying spreadsheet I had seen so far in my life! Guess it's coz I'm not the person who developed it and thus unclear with how all the links work in the spreadsheet,.a simple task of aggregating the monthly totals make me feel like ripping off the computer screen. I duno why every time I tried to insert a column in seemingly unrelated parts some numbers in other places change. Very pek-cek I tell you. And yet this is probably miniscule as compared to the stress level they are facing everyday.

Being intern is fun in that you're shielded from the 'harsh reality' of the level of stress and workload you will be exposed to in real enployment. What I do are just bits and pieces of a much larger project, while my poor colleagues have to put up with never-ending pressure from their superiors.

They told me their work are never finished, they stayed back in the office to as late as 5am (note, it's am), they sleep every working night without having dinner, they rarely have enough sleep ("sleeping is a luxury", so said), they have to face mountains and mountains of work each day, and never know when their superiors will pop up and ask: "Have you finished xxx that I gave you that day?".

I asked them don't they want a life. They told me to work in investment banking is to marry to your work, and you should only enter a job if you feel you could stand it without going crazy. So true.

Been busy with work

Some quick updates:

1. CIMB landslide happened on just my forth day at work. We are forced to move into a new location in PJ state, which is not too bad a location as an LRT station is just nearby :) However, we will be packing and moving back n christmas eve. (darn, why not we just stay on?)

2. Internship is really.....a great way to pass my holiday (Seriously?) .Yes, it's far better than fooling around and do nuts.

3. I really need to go back to work. My philosophy is : TO FINISH EVERYTHING AS FAST AS I COULD, AND SAU DONG AT 530pm SHARP. LOL

Special Situation Investment?? How special

Day 1 at CIMB Internship:

Uncle suggested that we leave early to avoid the congestion around Damansara, so I agreed to it.

We reached CIMB at 7.15am when Angeline actually asked me to report only at 8.30am. But good thing is we managed to find our way to the library of the CIMB knowledge and training centre. At least a place to sit down and read while waiting for the minutes to pass.

Skipping through the details of filling in forms, listenin to the welcome notes etc...

Apparently I am in for a special internship programme called "structural internship" where I am paired with a mentor for this two month programme. He's a nice person.

So I followed him to the department I am posted: SPECIAL SITUATIONS INVESTMENT at CIMB Investment Bank. What a name!

A natural question is : What on earth are SPECIAL SITUATIONS?

Apparently it works just like a unit-trust but at a much larger scale. Each investor contributes millions of money and the bank will do the investment part of it. Investments are usually on equities, where the largest returns usually come from. 20% p.a is the bare minumum that would attract the bank's interest. He said it is common in the industry to see returns on equity of at least (usually larger) 20% and I went like "WOW!". That just proves how unrealistic the numbers used in ACCG253.

This department deals with the cases where companies can't obtain funds elsewhere (from bank loans), mainly due to high leverage, lack of bank confidence on new products/ideas or industry etc. Essentially they have no access to debt-financing which is a much cheaper option with returns approx 6-8% pa. When that is the case these desperate companies will turn to equity-financing, more precisely equity financing from big institutions like CIMB to help raise investor's confidence.

There are much research work to be done due to the risky nature of these ventures. I have a stack of research work on my hand now that i believe is not the thickest my mentor has ever done. Page after page are descriptions of immense details on how the palm oil industry is performing worldwide and in Malaysia. The information is overwelming and it shows how careful the bank is at selecting the investment it is going to invest big bucks. Knowingly, it is a matter of millionssssss.

I guess the whole idea is to invest when the company's share is undervalued and sell it, say, 5 years later when the share price adjusts to where it should be (the bank obviously believe that it would be much higher), and expect to get at least 20% return.

Basically, I think I will get a glimse on a highly competitive investment market along the way of this programme. So far I like it.

爲什麽你那麽傻？

上午看到黎礎寧自殺的新聞我整個人呆住了！ 她是我看星光三拉拉以外最喜歡的選手了。好心痛的感覺。 礎寧你怎麽那麽衝動啊？

她父親說是過不了情関。

你有沒有想過這樣做對愛你的家人、朋友、歌迷所帶來的傷痛阿？朋友歌迷可能過一陣子就淡忘了，但是疼愛你的家人這一輩子都不可能忘記，這種痛是一輩子的你懂嗎？

惋惜你的走的同時我也覺得你當時的念頭好自私，我明白你想要擺脫情傷，但你就捨得爲了自己而讓愛你的家人扛這一輩子的傷痛嗎？

你知道嗎？這個世界有很多很多比你不幸的人，爲了生存下去勇敢地與死神拼搏，癌症病患，等待肝臟的病人，窮困地帶爲了尋找一口飯的人，戰亂地區尋找一個棲身地的人etc etc.....好多人爲了一個簡單的“存活”展現了堅強的意志、生命力，就連動物也爲了生存在垂死邊緣頑強地拼搏。

他們多想擁有你所擁有的百分之一，而你卻選擇放棄自己，放棄家人，放棄朋友歌迷。

我真的為你的死感到難過，雖然你根本不認識我。

不知道現在的你有沒有在後悔自己當時的決定，但我還是誠心希望你安息，黃泉路上好走。

給所有的人共勉之：請珍惜自己的生命，為您親愛的人着想。

一個學期最變態的時候

本小姐最近怎麽樣了？兩個字概括，就是：很忙！
讀精算的就是要言簡意賅。

STUPID HOT WEATHER!!!!!

Went to Eastwood (the last time I went there was....when? Can't recall) to buy groceries and try out the "hot, steaming egg tarts" my housemate victor loves so much that he bought six on his every visit. The last time I bought the eggtart was so pathetically cold and I was complaining "what kinda eggtart is this that you can't resist buying six every time", and he went like " no, no, no, you've got to eat when it is freshly baked cuz when it's hot and you're hungry you would then understand my passion for eggtarts". Oh well, I finally went for it when it's "hot and steaming" (I actually asked the eggtart girl how long I need to wait for the freshly made batch and came back after 20 minutes, as she told me to). True enough, it tastes good when I was yearning for hot food to fill my poor tummy.

And I was cursing the sun, the hot dry summerish weather even after I indulged myself with two fresh eggtarts. Luckily I managed to find a seat at a shady spot. Two ABC little girls sat beside me (I presume they are waiting for their parents who were busy shopping) each holding a box of DEEP-FRIED chicken nuggets and a big packet of HOT CHIPS. I was thinking like, " Wow you two puny chicks can really finish that much FATTENING FOOD ar? Sure boh, don't tell me those are your lunch. " While they were munching on those deep-fried fastfood they had a reasonably loud conversation with English curses that I previously wouldn't imagine coming out from two young girls of primary school age. See what westernisation can do.

If you're wondering I AM STILL SUFFERING from the HEAT right now. Super tulan-ed, why can't I have air-con in my room??? My fan on maximum speed is doing little help. Today's return bus trip from Eastwood was one of the most enjoyable because the air-conditioner worked well.

The locals will think otherwise, but no doubt summer is my least favourite season in Australia. So strange.

Random thoughts

As you would have noticed by now I'm blogging so much less often than before. Since I took up the free-lance writing job last month all my time for writing went for my boss. *sob sob. Could hear my blog crying in protest. But what can I do? I don't have unlimited time. But I'll try as far as I can to not let this space fall into dead silence for more than a month.

I had joined the Macquarie Uni Global Leadership Programme,at the spur of the moment together with my three other housemates. As a result, we are required to attend 10, yes 10, colloquium (or workshops I would say), each lasts 3 hours! Simple math tells you that the total is 30 hours! There you go, you just saw one more reason that stops me from writing too often here. I've registered for 3 this semester and that means a good 9 hours would be spent in the boring, poorly-ventilated W5C 335 (yea, it was poorly-ventilated yesterday during the first half). We sendiri cari pasal (We asked for it), you may think. Oh well, guess we're all just being kiasu. LOL

Chatted with my younger sister that day on MSN. Can you believe that it's only September and she has already finished with her UPSR exam and is lazying around at home, and she even picked up on MSN at the age of 12! God knows how old I was when I first used ICQ chatroom and subsequently MSN. See how technology-savvyGeneration Z is as compared to Generation Y. Well, officially me and my brother are Generation Y while my sis is Generation Z, according to official definition I read from Sydney Morning Herald sometime ago.

My sis was telling me her tuition teacher is recently diagnosed with a tumour in her uterus. I was like, Oh my God this is so scarry. We all know how common cancer is in today's over-pampered world. We eat all sorts of rubbish food and as a result our health deteriorates. I know that teacher is quite a nice person from my bro and sis who are taught by her. Fingers crossed, I hope she stays strong and put through the hardship and emerged as a survivor at the end.

A gentle reminder is struct. Life is so uncertain that you wouldn't know what's gonna happen next. I can still vividly remember the incidence last year where Nian Ning, one fellow JPA scholar, passed away in an accident. I remember how my housemates told me about the friendship they had with her and how sad they felt after her passing. Always count yourself lucky for being still alive and cherish every single day that you have，no matter the hurdles you're facing in life you are still luckier than alot more people in this world.

Sorry for the long silence

I know, I know， this space hasn't been updated for some time already. Blame who? ECON201, STAT271, ACST255.

Yes, blame the units I'm taking in this semester. So much to catch up every week, one tute exercise after another to keep me busy, assignments now and then to worry about, and not to forget a test next week for ECON201.

Plus, more worries about internship applications. Frankly speaking I'm in a huge dilemma. For two possible outcomes (STAT271 stuff rubs on me rather often, blame it not me）：Getting the offer and not getting the offer. This is a obviously a Bernoulli (p) distributed random variable. You can go on and test the hypothesis etc but I shall stop here before readers start switching to some other web page in protest.

Yes, so where was I....Oh yea, if I get an offer, I would need to worry about HOW ON EARTH　AM I GONNA WORK　IN KL?? ie. accommodation, transport to and fro work. If I don't get an offer, I would feel very kiasu because some of my friends will get it (based on the law of large number, the probability of at least 1 friend of mine get the offer converges to one). *Argh, not stats stuff again...

So what could I do? Nothing, just wait and see. Before the internship application outcome is out, lets take a deep breathe-in and forget about it (temporarily).

三首被我莫名其妙地喜歡的歌

星光三冠軍徐佳瑩的自創曲：

這個人的歌很奇怪，聼一次覺得ok而已，按repeat一次覺得：“Erm....還不錯啦”，如果再repeat一次就會越聼越喜歡，然後就會拼命重播。

哎。。。。爲了方便自己我把它們放在這兒，沒事干的人可以試聼下。
第一首：圓舞曲


第二首：白旗


第三首：最後一面

How I spent my saturday

It's been a while since the last time I wrote about my "dead routine life as an actuarial student at Macquarie University", hence I figure this post would not be as boring as the last one with similar topic. The law of 'infrequence brings excitement" (you know how I love to bullshit about purported 'words of wisdom' ).

Anyways, I was up from bed at 7.30am, a typical waking up time for each Saturday for the one and only reason: because I wanted to go for fitness instructor Narelle's fatburner class. Seriously, she's easily 60++ but she's still as fit as a tigress. Knee-up run, muscle training, steps, push-up, crunches .... a 60-something-year-old-lady can do all these, better than most of the youngsters. She does look fit with her well-toned body despite , shh..., her wrinkles and all that.

Finished fatburner class at 10.00am. Reached home and bathed while thinking hard on what I should have for lunch (since I've depleted my stock of bread, tomatoes, carrots what else could I do with?)

The answer came pretty fast : Continental instant satay rice. A voice inside me screamed: That is freakin' unhealthy!! Another voice replied: Else? You wanna starve?

My health-conscious self gave in. I took that packet (full of unhealthy seasoning) out from my cupboard and started cooking.

At 4.30pm I started dressing up for MGM. We were supposed to be ready at the bus stop by 4.45pm but knowing that Malaysians don't normal make it at the time 'they are supposed to' I didn't expect punctuality from my housemates and the others. I think by the time the bus left MUV it was already 5.15pm. Yes, our time is indeed half-an-hour late! Accurately.

One thing was I didn't bother to even look at the ticket the time I bought it, hence I had no idea at all regarding the required attire, which was formal or traditional. Nah, it's not like I would follow if I knew it before hand though. Despite my non-nonchalance many did dress up properly especially the guys who put on blazer and tie etc. Well, I told them they looked like future CEO of a casino or some corporation like that.

We reached UNSＷ 20 minutes later because our bus didn't stop like its public counterparts do. The weather wasn't kind to usl, it was freezing COLD outdoor. Despite having three layers inside me I could still feel my fingers being numb. Anyway, it wasn't all gloomy as we were heading for a buffet serving Malaysian food which many of us were missing awfully. Although it didn't start on time ( as usual, our time is half-an-hour late) but it was a sumptuous meal. I took 2 serving as my stomach was churning like crazy because I just had satay rice for the whole day.

Love the satay and ketupat, bryiani rice and a variety of meat cooked with spices. Well I won't say the standard was up to what we could get in Malaysia (that is never going to happen) but wow I did realise how much I miss home and a large part of it came from FOOD.

Having the experience of stuffing myself up to 101% and thus losing my ability to walk fast on Chen Chin's birthday, I was careful enough to only fill up 95% of my stomach lol.

After eating we headed to the Science Theatre to watch the performance which was theoretically the main reason people buy their tickets (though I never doubt most of them appreciate the food much more than the show, just like myself). To be honest it was an average one without too much extra-ordinary acting, nonetheless good effort to the group of UNSW Malaysians. The funniest part was this altered song and the scene where Ameen acting as a working father dated his 'bimbo secretary'.

I got to know two TESL girls who are ex-college mates of my high schoolmate Felicia. They were such cam whores. One funny comment asked by myself with a semi-retarded tone was: The same 'scenery' (note that we were nowhere interesting but in the bus), same human, why you need to take like n times??? They giggled for almost 10 seconds and replied, "Now you know the difference between us and Actuarial students". Seriously, they might be right. Or maybe not. They get high utility by taking the same photos, us being busier with life prefer to do some other thing, such as sitting still and watching them syiok-sendiri with amusement.

It was a fun night!

星光三總決賽

徐佳瑩拿第一，林芯儀第二：沒有任何出乎預料的東西發生，排名根本就和積分賽的一模一樣。

個人是一直都喜歡佳瑩拉，開始很不喜歡芯儀那個苦瓜臉，後來習慣了也就不以爲然了。

表演方面覺得芯儀輸在“華而不實”的表演，同意王偉忠說的就像Beijing Olympic Games 的Opening ceremony,感覺很厲害但不會由衷地喜歡。

佳瑩的聲音就是很舒服，很乾淨，很圓潤，沒有芯儀的那種殺氣power但又會讓喜歡的人瘋狂。費玉清出道以來三十多年喜歡他的人就是喜歡他很乾淨滑潤溫柔猶如美酒佳 肴的那種歌喉，我就是其中一個，常被人說你幹嗎喜歡聼那麽老土的歌。hey告訴你，人家出道三十多年還有那麽多瘋狂歌迷，很厲害叻！

話説回來覺得徐佳瑩的創作歌曲，令我為之瘋狂的只有《身騎白馬抒情版》（的確很驚艷），讓我琅琅上口覺得好聽的是《圓舞曲》（沖涼的時候不知不覺哼了曲子），剩下的《白旗》、《一樣的月光》，《失落沙洲》都還ok而已老實說,idea很有魅力但詞曲都只是above average,沒到非常好。我本來就不喜歡快歌（張惠妹的那種），覺得那種歌内容很膚淺，好像詞寫來只爲了押韻，曲故意很造作爲了就是配合跳舞，所以《香水》我覺得好看的是表演歌聲，不是歌本身。

反倒是她翻唱的一些歌我喜歡得很，像：

《心痛的感覺》-蘇芮
《愛情轉移》-陳奕訊
《我愛你》-盧廣仲

三首歌唱得非常有自己的味道！

瘋狂看了三季星光，真正喜歡的表演除了身騎白馬、圓舞曲、上面三首拉拉的歌，還有：

林宥嘉唱《你是我的眼》-蕭煌奇：我因此認識 蕭煌奇這個傳奇（盲人）歌手
楊宗緯唱《背叛》-曹格：以前不怎麽喜歡這首歌的
楊宗緯唱《新不了情》：一絕！蕭敬騰的沒那麽好，太苦了。
王彥博，游鴻明合唱《戀上另一個人》-游鴻明：非常喜歡albert合的音，很有feel。
林雨宣唱《天天想你》-張雨生：就像子鴻說的，好誠懇的感覺。因此喜歡這首歌。
黎楚寧唱《Save me from myself》：整個比賽她最好的表現，有蔡琴低音的魅力。

就這樣，四班也不知道什麽時候開始，反正我都是從20強開始看的。

Hail the cheapskates.

Couldn't believe my eyes. As I was carrying my groceries for the next 4 days just walking out from Woolworth supermarket, I saw:

2 ang-moh's, a guy and a girl. I presume that they were a couple. By the way, Woolies happened to have a sale on the lunch buns, which was selling 12 for $2.99. A pretty good deal I thought, from past experience. Also, canned tuna was selling 7 for $7.

The pair looked really joyous chit-chatting with one another. Dating sweetly, I suppose. They were sitting together at a table in the food court, with their laps stuck together, eating what you guess? Remember what I said about the special items?

You got it, smart. They were using the plastic knife provided in the foodcourt, cutting open a bun from the 12 pack, stuffing canned tuna on it, and ate the bun of course. Oh yeah, they did the cutting on a piece of tissue paper, also from the food court.

I thought cheapskates exist only among asians. The truth is, there are also some among the ang-moh's. Such an eye-opener.

Time to get back to normality

Winter break is officially OVER.
From tomorrow onwards till the next long summer vacation, I shall

Start:

1. To be serious again. Subjects taken this semester includes STAT271 (the hardest unit in the entire actuarial degree), ECON201 (a 4-credit point, no play-play unit), and ACST255 (well, this is the first unit that focuses intensively on actuarial stuff)

2. My grand plan to lose weight after eating lots of junk food during holidays. Yeah, this holiday saw lots of indulgence on Doritos, Bulla ice-cream, Papa frozen pizza, wasabi peas etc. Say no to junk food for the new semester!

3. Eating stir-fried chicken, veggie and steamed rice for dinner.


Stop:

1. Sleeping at 1am every night to watch TVB drama series. You guess it, drama marathon is my main activity for the past 6 weeks. I know it's ridiculous.

2. Lazying around like a pig, walking slowly like a tortoise. There isn't much time to waste when student life is resumed.

3. Thinking that it is OK to wake up at 8.30am everyday. No, not when I have 4 days of morning classes in a week.


I can't believe that I actually look forward to the start of my new semester. One month is sufficient to get myself bored of drama series, that is when I start to miss uni life. Though I must admit that this fresh wave of enthusiasm will be soon replaced by constant stress on tutes, assignments, and exams.

新学期又要开始了

漫长的假期终于要告一段落了，实在不敢相信六个星期这么一眨眼就过去了。哎，岁月不留人啊！一转眼又是一个新学期的开始，我的degree也都过了一半了，再撑一撑一个半年就毕业了。希望成绩好可以再读一年post-grad, 然后就真正要开始工作生涯。

很多人都这么说的，在大学的生活是最让人怀念的，而且这段时间的可贵总是在开始工作时才会体会到。也许吧！现在读书压力是有，但也算是除了课业压力之外无忧无虑。天天到健身房去 出一些汗，偶尔和朋友到外边去花一花钱，开心一下，或者打一打工赚些pocket money来买东买西。

Second year的课业的确是比第一年难了很多，上学期的表现老实说我是不太满意，好像态度上有了一点散漫，忽视了一些致命的小细节。这次万万不可小看精算部门的科目，这些都是些老奸圆滑的老教授掌柜的，他们巴不得把labour supply 减少，让professional actuary的工资保持现在的顶点。真够奸的，最多negative marking的就是这些人批改的科目了，最少（其实是没有）consultation hour 的也是这些教授，最会‘锄’其他部门的也是他们。哎。。。现在会批评他们啦，以后也不知道会不会自己也变成那种人。

不过说实在的啦, 在这里看人看多了，也觉得真正的好人很难得。尤其是处于社会高层的人，能够谦虚低调不看不起别人的，越来越少。目前在这个领域最看得顺眼的就是Professor Pollard 了。他是非非非常常常顶尖的精算师，很多我们读的theory 和model都是他想出来的，这种人简直是赚钱
'湿湿水’，不过看他还对学生很好很谦虚，不会看不起international students，又不会太执著于赚钱，会带老婆用一辆小如kancil的车子环游亚洲，而且是到那种被人视为落后如伊朗印度的地方。超佩服这种勇气!

其他的人呢？ 有些就很自以为是看不起别的领域，有些就很看不起亚洲人，有些就很冷漠很不爱理会别人，有些就性情孤独不爱和别人打交道。。。。各种各样我都看过了，虽然只在这里一年半。
只能希望自己以后不要变样，厉害的人又怎样嘛？ 还不是要吃饭拉屎对不对？

总之我这个新学期一定要努力，天天向上！！！
很久没有这种semangat的feel了，这是个好的开始。

Notes on a Scandal

This is a blockbuster hit in 2006, a movie that explores an unusual theme, a movie without a clear protagonist. A good one I would say. One that provokes thoughts on the darker side of humanity. You may notice by now that most of the movies I talked about in this space are the ones of this type. Plots that have a hero going through thick and thin to achieve a noble cause never fail to inspire and motivate, but the ones that take evil on stage without stirring up my disgust are what I would call admirable.

It all began with my routine surf on msn news as I had my breakfast. I do this everyday, but today's reading on msn health section brings something to my attention. An article advising about what a man should be aware of if his wife (a teacher) is getting unusually close with her male students. Yeah yeah, another piece of good advice from experts that stresses on how important is communication between husband and wife to make a marriage work. The article makes a reference to the movie 'Notes of a Scandal' to warn the confused husband about the possible consequences of indifference. Well, the title caught my interest. I clicked on the link out of curiosity, and the rest is history.

The story is presented via a voice narrating from a diary of Babara Covett, a 60-something spinster who is numb from her 35 - year career as a teacher in a supposedly well-established school. Being a lesbian (it wasn't stated explicitly in the movie but this is the message I got), she was gratified by what she thought was an "unusual connection" with a new teacher Sheba Hart, who was married to a man 16 years her senior. This Sheba, who was rather bored with her role as a mother to two troublesome kids and a wife to a seemingly unattractive old man, was in a secret intimate relationship with her 15-year-old male student Steven Connolly. While Sheba took Babara as an ordinary friend, Babara assumed "ownership" over Sheba's "loyalty" (such a bitch!). One day Babara caught Sheba having sex with the young boy, and got exasperated over Sheba's "betrayal" (who you think you are to own her?). Babara promised to keep the secret provided that Sheba could stop the relationship with the underaged boy. Sheba agreed but she broke her promise because she was getting increasingly needy of the "young towel of testosterone" (such a lusty description in the movie). Babara reveales the secret to a colleague who was interested to "commit an adultery" with Sheba out of jealousy and a feeling of betrayal, while pretending to know nothing when Sheba was admonished and despised by her family and the society. Babara offered Sheba accommodation and "companionship" when Sheba was on bail shortly after her arrest. Sheba eventually found out about the real intention of Babara to befriend her, shouting hysterically that she was not interested in a lesbian relationship with the old woman and was baffled at how things turned out after a seemingly innocent invitation for Babara to attend her family lunch to thank her for her help to stop a school fighting. Sheba was sentenced to 10 months of jail and returned to her family after that (I assume so based on a scene). The old lesbian bought a new notebook to record diary entries on her next target, who was also a young pretty lady. Sheba was not her first, and certainly not her last.

What a family destroyer! What a selfish and syiok-sendiri spinster who assumes others' extension of friendship indicates romantic (lesbian) seduction . What a repressive lesbian predator who cries over betrayal from other people but is blind to her own possessive characteristics! She lives a lonely life without long-term friendship because of who she is. Padan-muka.

Judi Dench did a great acting to make me despise Babara so much. Great effort from Cate Blanchett who played Sheba as well. Just lovin' the way hatred, jealousy, revenge, sex hunger, repression, obsession are portrayed in this movie that I didn't expect to come across at all this morning.

Shall we fly???

Today is 27th July. Uni will start in about a week time from now. Yeah...good times will always come to an end (so will bad times actually, but this is not the point lol). I had better enjoy the last week of my winter break to the fullest so that I won't miss the 'holiday activities' aka drama series marathon when the new semester starts.

You probably guess it. Drama watching is what I've been doing for the past few days. Didn't start on drama series till the middle of July. I know all too well the addiction that comes with entering the world that doesn't belong to me, the joy and excitement upon following the life stories, the ups and downs of characters in the drama. Most of us like it, but we all know that it isn't the best thing to do when time is preciously scarce e.g. during an academic semester.

Ah Wai chatted with me while waiting for his pal before work. We talked about internship，again. Do we need interns experience? Absolutely beyond any doubt. But shall we get it? Can we get it?Where can we get it? How? These are the common questions that arise in a typical conversation about internship programme. As I told my other friend during an msn chat session, overseas students like us face a dilemma: We go back Malaysia at the end of the year to spend valuable time and catch up with our family members, is it wise then to work as an intern away from home (for those people like myself who don't stay close to KL)? We only see our parents, siblings and other relatives this time in a year, shall we spend so much of our time working instead?

I admit that I don't have an answer. The whole prospect of being an independent adult scares me. I remember being in kindergarten that day, playing rope games with my primary schoolmates that day, stressing out for SPM Biology exam that day, freaking out for SAM finals that day, and feeling like I just came to Australia that day, and just finished the last paper of first semester of 2008 that day. And now, my winter break is almost over. Time waits for no one. I feel that time moves even faster since I finished secondary school. Sometimes I can't really believe that it's been 4 years since I left school.

How much have I grown? I know a part of myself is still a kid. I still love to be dependent (sounds weird isn't it)? Or maybe I should put it another way: I like to be able to share my joy, sorrow, and life problems with family and friends, while keeping some little secrets to myself occasionally. I have to be an independent adult some day, that is for sure. But when should that day be? As Ray said before, people who rush through life will suffer later (that doesn't always come from a boy who is a year younger than me). My question is, how fast is growing up considered too fast?

Our wings were weak then, we couldn't fly. We are well taken care off by our parents. We are loved and shielded from the storms in the outside world. We complain about how boring it is to stay in the nest built for us, and how exciting it would be to be out there seeking for freedom, not knowing the harsh reality in a dog-eat-dog world.

Our wings are stronger now, but shall we fly? Or shall we stay a little longer in this cosy little nest?

Another 4 months of fitness

I walked into the gym. A guy at the counter said hi.

“ My gym membership expired three days ago. I'm here to ask about the different options I have in extending my membership."

"Sure."

"I'm wondering is there any similar offer to the one early of the year where two students join together will get each of them one month free?"

"No, sorry."

"So that sort of thing only happens at the beginning of the year?”

"Yeah, it would probably be there again early next year, but right now it isn't."

Another lady came by.

"Are you a student?"

"Yeah."

"Trust me you students are paying $37.50 a month, that is ridiculously cheap. You guys are paying a third of what an adult member is paying. It's really a good rate you can't get it elsewhere."

"Alright. So I wish to extend it for another 4 months."

"Sure no problem. Can you fill in your name and sign here? Did your details change over this few months? No? Great"

(After keying in my details and scanning my card)

"150 dollars please. Thank you."

There you go. I commit myself to another 4 months of fitness. GO!GO!GO! I love gym!

To be honest I enjoy it. I love the classes. Fatburner sweats you out like no one's business and makes you feel as agile as a monkey. Revmaster makes your heart go 'thump, thump, thump' like it is going to jump out. Outdoor pool is freezing during winter but charming on a summer day. Indoor pool always feel like a spa with water of 27 degree celcius.

$37.50 a month? It's well worth it. But I'll still get another friend to sign up with me next year to get an even cheaper rate of $30 a month. Haha.