Yearly Archives: 2008

Stress Relief

★ Posted on at 09:34 pm ★

russian tea cakes

Russian tea cakes. Vyanne has been feverishly baking cookies in the kitchen for Christmas.

* * *

I find that I turn a little insane just a few days before an actual exam. Not that I mind it very much, but it does make me appear a little cuckoo. I start to think outside the norm about everyday things and my mind starts to have all these ideas.

My concentration is a little thin after work, and I’d rather be listening to music and exposing my senses to visual and audio stimulants than just staring blankly at graphs and charts.

Still not quite sure how I’d fare in the exam. I keep telling myself there is the potential to pass. I hope so. Like they say, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Just need to turn in now and hope I can get up early to cram a few minutes of stuff before plodding along to work.

Starting December

★ Posted on at 12:20 pm ★

It’s that time of the year again. I’m just thinking back about what went passed. The memories are a little less vivid this year. NYC seemed like a distant memory. It’s not that I don’t have fond memories of the place, but NYC was mainly work and it can be a cold, soul sapping place during the first 3 or so months of the year. You just don’t really feel like doing very much then. Feeling alone in a place with a population of millions, that just doesn’t sound quite right, but in truth it was very much so. I survived it, but thinking back, I don’t think I prospered very much during my time there. I could have done so much more.

* * *

Heh, it’s the final countdown. Sitting for my CFA exam next week. Averaging 60% on sample questions everytime I do them. Not a good score, as you need 70% to pass. Have less than a week to rectify the situation. Retention of info is more efficient now, as there is a basis no what I need to know for the exam. Still wondering if I will pass it. It’s going to be an arduous Sunday next week, with the schedule starting at 8am, needing to arrive an hour before the exam. 2 x 3 hr sessions, with lunch in between, ending at 5pm. It will be the emancipation of me after that, with so many things lined up that I feel like doing for the month of December.

Besides the exam, the only other thing floating in and out of my mind is work. Working for a big organisation presents its own challenges. I have met so many people that I’m not quite sure if I remember all of them by now. Boundaries of duties and responsibilities are blurred so you don’t quite know what authority you have at times to do something. A lot of things aren’t the most efficient allocation of resources but it’s a legacy system that’s been in place since before I was born, so making changes is like moving an iceberg. Heh, not impossible, just rather tedious.

Work provides certain challenges. I no longer feel as green as I did when I first started back in 2005. I feel more comfortable dealing with people, problems and issues. Perhaps its a new environment, I’ve ditched the procrastination and am more willing to learn. I don’t think I want to waste the opportunity to pick up new skills and progress in my career.

This leads me to vague ideas at times, wondering where I fit into the grand scheme of things. It’s strange, how everyone is leading their lives. It’s not a benchmark, but I feel like I’m following a standard guide towards life, all preprogrammed in my mind as I grew up and progressed from one stage to another. The truth is, once you come out of university, there is no template left to follow. Maybe I am simple minded in that sense, of lack a vivid imagination, but there are times when I’m not quite sure what I’d like to do with my future. It just seems that everyone has a clearer vision on what they’d like to achieve, or are more single minded on what they’d choose to do or not. I have always dragged myself along the current of time, just going wherever it took me.

* * *

Heh, start of month posts aren’t supposed to be so philosophical.

It’s going to be a busy month. Work as usual, lots of people visiting. I have a lot of ideas of what I’d like to do, and I wouldn’t be able to fit all that in with one breath. In summary, it would just be cleaning and tidying, a little reorganising of personal belongings, personal priorities and the like.

Now it’s just exam, pain, relief… then all the fun in the world!

The Endless Drizzle

★ Posted on at 10:05 pm ★

It’s been raining cats and dogs today. I have hardly known Melbourne to rain that much, and while driving today my windscreen wipers were on the faster setting, something I hardly used since I got my Jazz. Was out looking at houses today and saw one with an inverted design, the bedrooms on the ground floor, and walking up the stairs you’d have the kitchen and living area. Right next to the living area is an outdoor veranda, with an outdoor furniture set and BBQ, it looked almost ideal.

Prior to all the scurrying around, Vyanne and I had breakfast at Tom Phat, a west meets east kind of cafe. Had a grilled pork chop and egg on rice for breakfast, basically a reimagined Vietnamese pork chop on broken rice. Heh, the dish I had was good, with such an aromatic rice, and I’m most certain that the egg came out of a wok, with its crispy edges and puffiness. The porkchop had charred marks, probably grilled on a griddle. Vyanne had a roti omelette with salsa. This dish had an interesting taste profile and there was a slight chewy glutinous feel to the roti. Both were generously sprinkled with coriander, giving it a distinct Asian taste.

* * *

Despite the current economic gloom, both Vyanne and I have managed to spend a little to acquire our own ‘toys’, although mine is a little bit more pricy than hers. She’s been wanting a Belgian waffle maker since forever and they don’t really sell these items in Australia. We’ve been scouring eBay and other international sites in hopes of finding one, but even if the logistics of shipping one from overseas wasn’t bad enough, the fact that most of them used the 110v plug (US based items) means that while we could import one, we still couldn’t use it. I tried to outsmart the system by considering the purchase of a step down transformer, but even that was a futile approach as most would only supply up to 1000w of electricity, and at a very hefty price might I add. Waffle makers have heating elements, so they also consume a lot more juice than most standard electrical appliances.

Heh, so when Vyanne found out that Sunbeam was bringing a Belgian waffle maker to Australia, she became very hopeful. It was announced in November on their corporate website that these handy machines would be available on retail very soon. After dinner on Friday night, we chanced by Myer to see if they had any available and after going through the shelves of electrical appliances, I instantly recognised the Belgian waffle maker. The amazing thing was that the machine on display was the first device brought out of storage, and it had only been put out on that very day. So after a little waiting for them to grab another box out of storage, Vyanne became the proud owner of a new waffle machine.

I’ve managed to sample some of the waffles with some Danish butter and Canadian maple syrup and it tasted quite heavenly. So now we’ve added to out arsenal of kitchen appliances and I can have nice, puffy, Belgian waffles on demand during the weekends.

Here it is with savoury toppings. Yummm.

savoury belgian waffle

* * *

Heh, and what did I buy? My first paycheck spurred me to buy something a little more outlandish, and since flirting with the Eee PC while in NYC earlier in the year, of which I have sold to Vyanne’s mom, I have now acquired a newer model of the device. It was on sale online and I decided what the heck, I’d just get it. I have no practical use for it, since I already have so many computers at home (one of which will be eBayed off shortly), but with its portability, I can think of other uses for it.

It comes with the same tiny keyboard (which I can touchtype on as I’m posting this blog) but with a much more frugal processor (in terms of power consumption), a beefier battery (5 to 6 hours of usage on one charge), more storage space and most importantly, a slightly larger screen with better resolution. It runs cooler than the 7″ Eee I had and the fan hardly turns on at all, so it is virtually inaudible. Surfing the net feels more comfortable now and the device is really quick enough to do most tasks. It’s currently running Windows XP which came installed by default. Part of the reason I got the Eee was to experiment Linux on it. There are a lot of interesting apps for Ubuntu that I’ve been playing around with and as I keep reiterating, I’d like to become more familiar with it so as to not rely on Windows too much.