All in the name of corporate social responsibility

If you ask me which item on McDonald's appeals to me the most, at least in Australia, my answer will be Granny Smith Apple Pie!

As I was happily munching my superbly hot apple pies around 10-ish this morning, I saw this on the paper bag.


Then I went oh~

Indeed I kept the bag because my curiosity told me to do so.

And I did check out the website. It is kinda cool!

I once heard about how a burger that is sold to us for $5 actually only costs McD $1. At least McD cares to channel a bit of its profit back to the community. *clap clap clap*

覺得“天才”的definition好像被結構化

世人對genius的定義好像都環繞在幾個領域。

我自己最常耳聞目睹的定義是：年級小小就數學很棒的人。
信手沾來的幾個例子就有已故張世明，在Malaysia紅一陣子，5嵗就會做form 5 add math 的Adi Putra, 為Macquarie uni 創下後人可能沒辦法破的紀錄的無敵Actuarial student Weihao Choo, 再來Luke Nichols也算其中一個，還有那個不知道叫什麽名年級小小就被Malaysian government送去UK的馬來女生 etc

他們都有一個很明顯的共同點，就是他們年級小數學造詣卻希伯高。我常常在想這些人的腦到底是怎樣的？是不是一聼完課，或者看數學課本看一遍就*燈泡亮一下*懂了？不用教, 給一兩個example他們就奇跡般地。。。會了！是不是這樣告訴我！

很奇怪的是學術界的genius幹嗎都一定（或者99%）是數學希伯厲害？爲什麽不會有e.g. 語言掌控得很好的小孩被封為天才？就算那些spelling很厲害，厲害到去參加spelling bee competition的人好像也沒被封為天才？爲什麽榮獲國際各類常識比賽冠軍的小孩不被說成天才？

可能數學在人類發展的腳步中的地位是其他領域 如語言、人文地理無法匹敵的。

除了Academic genius另外三种人也有機會被封天才：
1。年紀輕輕運動造詣卻很高的人。這種人通常5，6嵗就被送去運動學校，企圖把他們訓練成未來的olympic gold medalist. 由於花太多時間在訓練上這些人通常學業不太好。e.g. England football squad的Wayne Rooney。

2。童星, aka有機會在娛樂圈大紅大紫的小孩。經典例子：Michael Jackson.

3。音樂細胞很多的小孩。這種人也跟1一樣，年紀輕輕可能就被送到有名的音樂學校e.g.英國的Royal School of Music，從小就接受很嚴格的音樂訓練。經典音樂才子：Mozart。

不過奇怪的是以上這三种“天才，1 和3的知名度往往比不上學術界的數學天才。運動天才最多在重大賽事 e.g.Olympic games, World Cup時才會受到關注，音樂天才更不用說了，只有懂音樂的人才會為之驚艷。只有童星才能跟math prodigy 拼。

童星會紅是因爲他/她的表演、影片、唱片人人都聼人人都看，而math prodigy的名聲一般都是這樣建立的：x嵗完成小學，y年内念完高中，在高中大考考或z個A (或者A1, 或者某某top score), w嵗考進世界排名第k的p大學的h科 系（注意！ h 通常都跟數學有關係，絕對不會是Bachelor of Arts, 也絕對不可能是商業成分太高的如Accounting，更不會是阿貓阿狗都念得起的科系)，m年内完成學士， n 年内完成碩士and/or博士。

突發意想：爲什麽沒有年級小小卻打poker或麻將一流的人被封天才？

如果你在想爲什麽我會打這篇文。。。本小姐在等oven 裏的雞肉烤熟，自娛娛人罷了。

吃飽太空閒之My attempt to understand the science behind "Stress"

A casual conversation with a friend stirred up my interest to read up on yet another random topic through google search.

Well it isn't that random aye? University students say they are under 'pressure' to keep up with their lecture materials; working adults say they are constantly rushing for deadlines; even full-time mothers complain about how 'stressful' it is to take care of young children, send them to school and return home only be greeted by housework that never seem to end.

I hated Biology in high school, that's why I didn't take up my dad's suggestion to pursue a medical degree. Yet, I surprised myself by my renewed interest in reading stuff about Biology, though I suspect the main reason being its relevance to me (and so many other university students).

It seems strange to me at first how stress can kill. It is untouchable, and its existence is sometimes difficult to define. Unlike a bullet which can go through a person's head and condemn him/her to instant death, stress does not have any physical sense of existence, yet depression is the number 1 cause of 'disability' in the population of Victoria.

My amateurish attempt at understanding some medical journals I found online led to a simplistic explanation. What we termed as 'stress' is actually a natural reaction to "dangerous" or "potentially life-threatening" situations, in the context of simple animal survival. Such reaction isn't supposed to be prolonged ie animals either escape from danger or die, in either case the body response to heightened level of anxiety will not last for a long time.

However, human extended existence beyond what nature lays down for us as well as our sophisticated brain structure which makes us 'aware' of our environment make us, I believe, more prone to stress than the wild animals whose only concern is 'survival'. Human invented responsibilities, commitments, love, care, duty - all contribute to different, and in some ways, more intense, level of 'stress' compared with the natural sources which are limited to predators, change in living environment and climate.

My poor grasp of Biology terms did not allow me to comprehend exactly the workings of our body's response to stress. I believe it is some sort of hormonal reaction, in that under stressful situations our body release some hormones to help us cope with the 'external danger'; however if the level of such hormones stays high for too long our immune system will start to deteriorate and this makes us more prone to illnesses.

So it is like alcohol. If it stays in your blood stream ALL THE TIME, you die of toxic.
It is akin to AIDS, which weakens your immunity and let other viruses kill you.
It is like some cancer. You can only try to manage it but not get rid of it completely.

吃飽沒事做時看的：偉大的JF 原來有做這種Research。。。。。。

來看看神仙級的Actuary說了什麽：

Source:
Completion Rates of International Students Entering the Actuarial Program
by
Jim Farmer

“Students successfully completing the New South Wales (NSW) Higher School Certificate (HSC) are awarded a Universities Admission Index (UAI). The UAI is a number from 0 to 100 which ranks the student’s performance relative to all students in their year 10 cohort. Since not all year 10 students complete high school studies to the year 12 level, and those who don’t tend to be the less able students, the average UAI awarded is well above 50.”

哦。。。原來UAI是這麽一回事啊！Australians 怎麽那麽有創意會想到拿Year12來和Year10比？這種ranking方式我還是第一次聽到，不過也是有道理啦。

“To gain entry to an undergraduate degree program at Macquarie University a student must attain a UAI – or interstate equivalent – not less than the relevant “UAI cut-off” for that degree. Many degrees have two different UAI cut-offs: one for domestic (Australian) students who are predominantly funded by the government and a usually lower cut-off for international (non-Australian) students who are charged tuition fees.”

簡單來説所有的澳洲大學很寬待international students因爲他們繳付的學費比local students高非常非常多！現實一點吧，世界上有幾個人會和$鬥氣？人家也是要吃飯的。

“There has been discussion as to whether having a lower UAI cut-off for international students than for domestic students is appropriate. Some arguments on this issue assume that the international students who only satisfy the lower international student UAI cut-off are less likely to satisfactorily complete their degree than are the international students who also satisfy the higher domestic student cut-off. ”

我也很想知道啊.

總之result 就是有UAI 的international students，無論是達到domestic students cut-off （大約97分）抑或只是達到比較低的international students cut-off (大約93分），成功順利念完精算係的只有40-46%。

我怎麽覺得我這一年的international students 好像都很強叻？

這個research用的data 是1999-2001系列，可能當時學生也沒有現在多吧。

也有可能international students一年比一年聰明LOL.

Report中有提到的一點就是local Australians通常只有考或UAI 99以上才會報讀精算，而international students (可以先入爲主地當作都是亞洲人吧？）拿到96,97就已經一窩蜂地喊“我要念精算！！！” ----〉其實很對，亞洲人想賺大$的比較多吧！

後記：這篇blog絕對是本小姐假期空閒，自己寫自己爽，絕對沒有別的意思。

Negaraku Malaysia I love thee~~~

A culture you won't find elsewhere.
For those who can't read Malay, it says "No hawkers are allowed in this area. Fine RM3000".

PS: Malaysians have a lot of humour don't we? Imagine you are driving past after a tiring day at work a good laugh is all you need and this kind stall owner provides just that!


Source: Forwarded email from Choy Yin

On Michael Jackson's passing

It surprised me when I stumbled on the news on Michael Jackson's death at age 50 (actuarial students would probably say: to be precise, it is age 50 last birthday...) when I was routinely searching for the latest EPL updates.

I wrote this on facebook just minutes ago:

I have to admit the Michael Jackson I knew before he died was a freak; an eccentric middle age man who was constantly unhappy with how he looked and tried relentlessly to look like a person he wasn't; a re*arded father who dangled his baby son over the balcony. It is only after some (toilet) reading of newspaper review of his life and some youtube search of his old videos that I realise he is a legend (on stage)!

and one of my online friends immediately replied he loved the old Jackson, the one who was his original self and not the man who was troubled and constantly caught the media's eyes for the wrong reason.

Celine Dion talked about Michael Jackson on the breaking news right after his death. I thought what she said on how Jackson fell from his stardom was spot on:

"I thought it was so unfortunate, Larry(the news broadcaster), because ... he was under pressure. I think we all live under pressure differently. We live under pressure because we want to give the audience and the fans what they look forward, what they expect. We wanna do a better album, we wanna do a better show. I think Michael Jackson lived under pressure all the time, since he was five years old, wanting to please his family, his fan, and putting the bar so high... that even like, he needed to be surpassing his own belt. And I think it's so unfortunate that the pressure was so tremendous, I am so sure that if you only live under pressure and you don't have something, your family, your husband, your wife, your children, I mean, he probably had so much but he didn't have the balance."

Michael Jackson said he was used to being beaten by his father when he was a young boy on Oprah Winfrey's show. Michael Jackon began his journey to stardom back when he was a five-year-old boy, performing with his brothers. To me, the sentiments he showed when singing those hits were not expected from a pre-puberscent boy. They were not lullabys, not songs like Old Macdonald Had A Farm...the songs were about heartbreaks, about anger, about love. These are undoubtedly emotions of an adult. He had outgrown his age. He was literally....an adult singer notwithstanding his age.

What came after his peak were a series of events which put him under constant criticism from the mainstream media. He seemed unhappy to be a black and changed his physical appearance through plastic surgeries (he looked like crap after that, to me at least), he was accused of paedophilia, and child abuse when he notoriously held his baby son over the balcony etc. Sadly, these are what definine Michael Jackson to me. I see Michael Jackson as a freak, a weirdo, an outdated celebrity, a mentally retarded monster. It is until his death when I read all the news review and listened to his music on youtube that I see the reason behind the huge population of fans of his worldwide - you've got to admit that he is a star, no matter you like him or otherwise.

I strongly believe that his early rise to the limelight is what took his life, not just "life" in the sense of the ability to breathe, but also the normalcy that you and I take for granted all the time. From what I can see from the omnipresent reviews on Michael Jackson's life journey, he was not normal. He didn't have a normal childhood, teenage years, marriage, adult life ... Just like how Celine Dion puts it, he didn't have the BALANCE to everything he had: fame, celebrity status, admiration, expectation from his fan ...

Coincidentally I was having this conversation with a friend on how people have different intelligence level and whether this is 'fair' as intelligent people tend to work less hard and score better academically. Michael Jackson's life story tells me something: God gives all of us different gifts. Some people may have more gifts than the others. However it is up to us to use what we have to sketch our life journey, whether that means an exceptional roller-coaster ride with highs and lows or an ordinary track with simple happiness, or a delicate balance between the two extreme end of the continuum. It is never a question of 'fairness'. There is always a trade-off to everything.

The damage done by spotlights - The Susan Boyle drama

It's strange that I'm blogging about Susan Boyle on my birthday instead of exclaiming my excitement at joining the '21 club'. Yea of course I am happy, and guess what it's the last day of uni for this semester! (but that means exams are scarily near!)

I knew right after the finale of Brittain's got talent that Susan Boyle lost. I am not a fan of her. I think she's good but not good enough for me to become a die-hard fan for. I prefer listening to Celine Dion instead. (Recently I started on Jason Mraz too, thanks to all my frens who continuously praise his great-ness at his recent concert in Sydney.

I feel sorry for Susan. Before the reality show she is a nobody - an unemployed, 'a virgin that is never been kissed before' (I'm just quoting Susan), suffered from some health complication when she was an infant, live only with her cat etc. And out of the sudden, everyone is watching her first performance at Brittan's got talent on Youtube. >50 million hits for heaven's sake! If that's not called sudden fame, I wonder what is?!

When the first wave of Susan craze greets the world I secretly wish she will put it all through. The pressure from the millions of her fans, the scrutiny of worldwide mass media, the unrealistic expectation from her audience. People seem to forget that she is only just a HUMAN, like you, me, all of us! She is bound to react what a normal human will to things like...unceasing disruption and pressure from the media. Come on human beings on earth, we err, we make mistakes, and we constantly improve ourselves, NONE OF US IS PERFECT! But the expectation put on Susan Boyle is that she is akin to a God, her voice is from "heaven" and she HAS to win the competition to justify her instant fame.

I'm quite sure when she decided to join the competition she was just wanting to be heard, to be noticed, to be recognised that she is not a nobody, and her life is not worthless. She succeeded in touching the heart of millions of people in the world, people who are labeled a 'failure' start to see hope after Susan's rise to the limelight. I am touched by her courage - a plain looking middle age woman working hard to pursue her dream - though I'm not that much into her singing (coz I prefer Celine Dion lol!). But I want to see her put through all the hurdles, I want to see her succeed in life, not just in the competition. I want to see her becoming a more confident person than she was before and realising she can do something with her life, as the world recognises her voice.

Weeks later, I read the news on her falling popularity in Britian due to her 'strange behaviour', which I am pretty sure is due to pressure from the media and her fans. And after that, the news on her 'disappointing' performance that make her on runners-up instead of the Champion in the show is on almost every daily paper, celebrity magazines on earth. Hey isn't that already a great achievement? Why MUST she be crowned champion to be appreciated? Is taking the runners-up a shame? a disgust?

See that's the toll of unrealistic expectation. That's exactly the reason behind all the stories on 'falling stars', 'falling genius' that I have seen and read so often in the past. Had they been given the time like everyone else, had they been allowed to progress in a healthy pace, had they been given the right to live a normal childhood, had they been given a normal brought-up, they will do well.

But......the damage has been done. She swore in the public (actually many of us do, but we often get away with it coz we are nobody, and Susan is somebody) and that event condemned her to rapidly declining popularity and criticism from the WORLD. Can you just imagine what sort of pressure that would be? Can you imagine yourself being finger-pointed by strangers, being called silly names because of how you look and how disappointed they are at mistaken you as a admirable person?

Was her second singing of "I Dreamed a Dream" better than her first? I would definitely say YES! But many of her fans just won't feel it anymore, because her image is tainted by her outburst before the finale. For many, Susan is no longer their idol because of the swearing that shock the world who once saw her as an innocent middle-age woman who was strong, cheerful and adorable.

She must be really miserable now. Her fame doesn't do her any good, apart from the short-lived popularity. But still, I believe that her heart is as pure as gold and the outburst was totally unintentional. She just happened to be irritated and acted irrationally, without knowing the extent of the public pressure she would face later on.

Be strong Susan, and the storm will be over soon.

GLP Cross-cultural Colloquium

It wasn't the best time, at all. I had an assignment to hand in before 4.00pm today, a quiz to submit before 5pm, gloomy sky which suggested carrying an encumbrance human call umbrella as the chance of raining is real. The great me signed up for a colloquium which started at 2pm few weeks ago thanks to two occurrences of canceled colloquium due to the convenor "feeling unwell".

But surprisingly, I found myself enjoying the three hours instead, despite receiving tonnes of negative feedbacks from friends who had done the colloquium before and obviously weren't happy with the way it was conducted.

The convenor did a great job at engaging us, stirring up numerous discussions that were very very relevant to cultural complexities that arise when we become more 'global'. Should we have the right to offend people? When we have two people with conflicting cultures who should adapt and which culture should dominate?

The problems that arise from different cultural values are far from obvious. A question that leaves myself wondering is how willing I am to let my (future) children to adopt the Australian culture (some of which I could not find myself accepting), if I were to stay on and live here? It's easy to take a stance in principle, either to enforce my own cultural values from my home country, or to just completely let go and let them do whatever the environment dictates, but in reality both are just too extreme and a balance ought to be taken. The million dollar question is, where is the delicate balance here?

Observing the people around me tells me they are different from myself, even if they are ethnically the same as I am (i.e. Chinese) or even if they are originally from my home country (ie. Malaysia). The way ABC's behave and carry themselves around are just not like us, who are born and raised in another country. I've got to admit at least theoretically that immigrants should adapt to the culture of whichever country they chose to live in, after all that's the choice they have made. But how easy is that?

80% of Australians speaks English and only English. Some knew a tad bit about their mother tongue but they are far from being fluent in it. It's been an emotional issue, in particular when we put ourselves in the shoes of their parents who may (secretly or openly) wish that their children grow up to be just like them, with the religion and values they themselves hold to. In the colloquium there were quite a number of people with immigrant parents saying that they have conflicts with their parents, often over issues which stem from a cultural intolerance. I guess one common scenario is that Asian parents sometimes don't want their kids to date with people from another cultural background (in particular, the Caucasian) but their kids just fall in love with someone who don't fit the definition of their parents' ideal future son/daughter-in law.

Oh well, there is no right or wrong answer or one-size-fit-all solution to this problem, and this problem won't go away as long as there is still a constant flow of immigrants into Australia seeking a 'better' life. The refugee problem is quite an issue now, though what concerns me the most is the Commonwealth government policy to cut the number of skilled-immigrants LOL.

I have to admit that the temptation of staying on in Australia after our tertiary education is strong, for almost every international student. It's a good place to live and work after all. But immigration is getting hard these days.

Who knows what will happen next.

So I break my self-set spending rules for 2 days

Hey hey!

I know, it is like ages since I last blogged. Pretty lazy these days to actually start writing despite being in the much-needed mid-sem break of my first semester. Uni was hectic for the first half so I think it's good timing to pause and rest for two weeks before the much crazier second half comes by(I have utmost confidence it will be a lot crazier--> statisticians would say there is no 100% confidence in this world but I'm very very sure about it).

Harvin came down to Sydney all the way from her "kampung place of working" for her graduation. Bravo I would say coz she actually planned out her trip so nicely despite the hurdles in the public sector, oh you know how those people can sometimes be extremely annoying in granting approvals for what is seen as 'reasonable causes' for a leave. It was really nice spending time being a 'shopping advicer' for two days, catching up on the recent events in M'sia, gossips among the Cohort 2 TESL people (LOL), see how she is now being an official cikgu, and also practise my skill in converting everything in dollars into ringgit hahaha. I guess that pretty much makes up for it as I won't be able to attend the graduation ceremony due to my up-coming Hunter Valley trip.

I wonder how am I gonna cope with working in M'sian public sector one day when I need to go back to serve out my contract? Sometimes I just wish I were a self-sponsored with everything in my hand, choices of career path, companies I want to work in, the task that I am passionate with etc etc. But the reality is my family can never ever afford an overseas education (not even if they take out a loan, honestly) without any subsidy, thus I really should count myself lucky for making it to Australia for my tertiary education.

If it weren't for the likes of Ng Yi Liang etc who scored well in SPM 2004 and appealed very hard to JPA on their rejected JPA scholarship application, and Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting who fought hard to obtain additional places for us (I don't care if he did it out of political considerations or not, the fact is he DID it), I would probably end up completing my A-levels under ASEAN scholarship and be stuck in S'pore for uni and career. I do like S'pore very much, but I was more keen at that time to take up an opportunity in Australia coz it's a western country.

For now I honestly don't feel like leaving university yet! Life being a uni student is just oh so good --> most important realisation from my 2-month internship at CIMB last year. There are many out there who can't wait to leave uni and start earning $$$. Different people I guess, but not me.

In a strange way, I love Macquarie University despite the crazy workload every semester. Stressing over an up-coming test, struggling to catch up with the pace of lecture & tutes, 'admiring in awe' the different styles and personalities in the Department of Actuarial Studies and insane students who are so not like human (e.g. W.h.Choo, L. Nichols, J. Poon etc). On a lighter note, the GLP program has so much fun, sadly I don't always have the time and $$$ to join their exciting program and meet more people. I wish I could have gone on a volunteer program, or join their overseas symposium or go on a short-term exchange, but only manage to go for a Canberra one which is much less expensive than the others :( Ultimately, $$$ still matters. Sigh.

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).