On Separation and Overexpectation

Months ago I used to be listening to a little jazz and intoxicated by alcohol while updating the Issue. Today I am sitting in Millennium Tower intoxicated by Paris Hilton's album.

It sure is different here having a small family within Ernst & Young, with a Lotus Sametime chat channel open almost 8 hours a day. It's impossible to get booze here (the workplace) in the first place. But apparently now is not the best time of the internship: today marks the first exit of a colleague we dearly hang out with. Wednesday will see another two leaving, and myself on Friday.

Now, on overexpectation. Should I name names? I love that shit. But I don't think I should 'coz it's a little commercial. So I read about this decent looking twenty-something who has a Masters in Applied Finance and a ladies shoe boutique under her belt. When I discovered that she'd also won some fashion award not too long ago, I was really intrigued and she became an immediate inspiration.

Yesterday I brought two girl friends of mine to her premise. We found things you could get somewhere else, only more than 200% marked up. It was the location, no doubt about that. No second time for my friends, no doubt about that too.

Did I lose my inspiration as immediately as I had made it one? I can't tell but I tried my best to look at the positive side. Maybe:
1) good merchandising skills and a keen eye for trends made her make similar buying decisions with other labels.
2) maybe my friends were just not the target market.

Whatever it was, I felt as if I had lost a little inspiration nonetheless.

Forunately, things brightened up a bit when I and my colleague walked into Tos'R'Us today.

Tension II: Void from Scene

Last week when tension built up on the field, my car crashed into someone's.

But I was void from the scene today. Yet my front bumper was pretty badly hit while it sat idly in the car park. The perpetrator apparently left without much concern nor left any message. A passer-by however left a sticky note on my side window: NAZA 1299 (KIA Carnival).

If any of you could help, let's get diplomatic.

Moo Books & Eyes

Good morning eyes! Yes, they're still fresh, because it's only 8:41am as at time of writing. By 5:30pm they'd be as red as red meat.

After centuries lastnight my dad finally cooked some dinner. When he reminded me of that suddenly the food tasted a little better.

Lunch was horrible yesterday. I've never eaten such hot green curry in my life. These Thai wannabes must have chucked some gasoline in there.

And Kinokuniya. What's with the 'snowflakes' discounts? I've got like 10 stamps in less than a month. That's more than RM500 spent. I'm sure they love impulsive idiots like me.

*Kinokuniya hugs Ben*

Tension: Finally Proven

Working sure is alot tougher than studying. When they tell you to get the most out of your student life, listen to them.

So there was only 3 days this week. First day's lunch was normal although, as usual, my 'economy' rice was overpriced again. Dinner was an extravagant Korean BBQ though. We ventured further on Thursday, to BSC because a friend was leaving. Today we were at Royal Selangor Club (Kiara).

In these 3 days, however, I feel rather bad. My incomplete jobs were handed (by my superiors) to my own colleagues. One for amendments, the other for completion. It feels like I've done a terrible job. I'm sure they couldn't agree more.

Regarding the topic. Some who had the chance of sitting in my car have surely noticed how stressful the streets are to me. So today there was finally a physical impact: I was following behind this car that moved backwards alot before sloping up to the parking cashier. When I was also at the slope waiting for him to pay his ticket, I had my gears neutralized so I could myself move backward should some shit happen. Well no shit happened and I forgot I was on N. The car rolled down and hit an Airtrek. I wonder if lack of sleep contributed to it.

Little Recap

Goodbye 2006! But anyhow let's have a look:

I entered 2006 fresh from a break-up. I broke up on Christmas 04 so you could imagine. Then I learned to drive shortly after that. Family and friends got so proud of me. But most importantly, of course, I was proud of myself too.

Came mid-February was time to get back to Melbourne for my 2nd year in U of Melbourne. I bumped into a friend's place for 5 weeks before I managed to get a new place. Silly me, I was still trying my luck on my ex till I moved in. Then Ben woke up and paid much more attention to scholarly endeavours. I nonetheless only managed to obtain two 79's.

Moving in with a new housemate, Chris, and staying with him for 8 months wasn't that bad but it ended pretty unpleasantly. Let's not get into that.

The second semester was time I make up for my first year: I repeated a subject by overloading. At the same time, I started mixing with a new bunch of friends that partied almost every weekend. Or maybe we had good excuses: people's birthday fell on almost every other week.

It looked as if they were both negatively impacting my studies. Well yes they were! I finished my last exam calmly but I knew it didn't feel right. When my friend started panicking, so did I. It turned out to be 53%. How close. I'm glad I'm through but that really compels me to be a little more serious about my Actuarial Studies course. Or perhaps I should think about even continuing it. But I will for the degree's sake.

That bunch of friends really sorta changed me in my approach to weekdays and weekends. I mean, I really take them differently now. Study hard, party hard. It's a very logical (economically speaking) reward system afterall. And self-interest at its best. (Note to other friends: friends are not exhaustive. Having them doesn't mean I can't have you guys unless, of course, I'm unwanted)

Oh yes. Speech problems. I seemed to pronounce W's as V's. Velcome? Lol. Apparently it's not chronic anymore.

A little highlight: the parties were good.

Then Ben came home. After less than a month of pure vacation, I'm now an intern in Ernst & Young. Why Ernst & Young for an actuarial undergrad? I need exposure to other things as well.

I'm sure there is so much more to recap. Little minor and intimate things. A blog's a blog. I shall leave 2006 to that. Let's look forward.