Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Feels like the start of a good day… better be a good day
Should nothing go wrong I will be able to leave office early to meet Meiling for the Isetan private sale… yeah so much for the frugal lifestyle I am supposed to lead…
Angela’s back and Lingman’s flying today. Joshua will be flying on Saturday I think… Oh yeah, the both of them are going to Canada… what a coincidence
JIONG TING ♥
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
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Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Time is now 1.45pm and I still haven’t had lunch… and it seems like I am the only one in office today for lunch… pretty amazing how I have been pretty free in the morning before all the arrows come all at once…
Maybe it is a sign from above that I should go on a diet and eat less…
JIONG TING ♥
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
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Monday, December 26, 2005
Hmm the holidays sure are quick to pass when you are working…Tomorrow will be the start of yet another week of my internship; my sixth week before I head back to school
Speaking of school… I will be doing a one day week next semester… with 7 hours packed into my Thursdays… sounds too good or too mad but yah, I have paid my dues and the price of doing too much in the previous semesters… Did I mention I didn’t exactly do too well this time round?
Well…screw it… life’s all about up and downs but this month seem to be so much more towards the downside and I shall just try to enjoy the final semester. Either to land another meaningful internship or to just bum and party…
I hope I get another internship that is like 2 to 3 days a week or the 20 hour programme offered by SGX so my final year project wouldn’t be affected and I get the chance to know what I want to do when I graduate in four months time or so…
Went for coffee with Ling Man (from my year 2 semester 1 class) today to catch up before she flies for Canada on Wednesday for a semester there as I have not really seen her since the beginning of the semester. Was pretty nice catching up with her over dessert at Hagaan Daaz but yeah I probably gained another pound or two today…
BTW... picture from Batam cable ski
New year resolution? To be more frugal and stop spending money like how I have been the past two weeks or so… To treat my friends better and not take them for granted… and the list goes on….
JIONG TING ♥
Monday, December 26, 2005
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Just back home from dinner with Wenting and Biyu, a belated treat from them for my birthday (hmm... that was quite sometime back though) as well as to celebrate Christmas. It really has been some time since I last caught up with them after the exams ended.
Dinner was at Outback over at Millennia walk and as usual the pictures on the menu are misleading, and after which we had dessert at Gelare and I think I am probably another kilo or so heavier… by the time school start I will probably be at my heaviest in like my whole NTU life? OMG! #$^% I ha better start working out after Christmas… and stop snacking
Hmmm what else took place today besides dinner? Watched an episode of the Japanese serial which I started on before the exams... Must say I quite enjoy the show despite it being one of those tear wrecking and heart wrenching show whereby the guy and girl lead fall in love only for the guy to find out the girl contracts a terminal disease…
OK~~ that’s about it. Tonight, for a change I want to hit the pillows before 1.30 if possible
JIONG TING ♥
Monday, December 26, 2005
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Sunday, December 25, 2005
Christmas day 2005Just back from a 30 minute run… hmm to help ease the guilt from last night’s (this morning) Ba Ku Teh and drinks and the so called feast over at Hanwei’s place
Met up with Hanwei and Adrian around six in the evening to prepare for a Christmas feast for us three single (unwanted?) guys… and it was really a dinner meant for nine instead of us three … Ok~ it was my fault that we bought two chickens but Adrian was equally guilty for the two cans of Campbell soup…
The trio of us went to countdown with Si Qi, Si Jia, Brenda and Zehan at the new Ministry of Sound; the scene at MOS here is definitely much better than the one I went to in Taipei but the music could be better though. It wasn’t till we were about to leave that the music picked up and by then it was about four in the morning.
It was Ba Ku Teh time and it provided the perfect setting for Hanwei and Adrian to know their new found friends better? One of the topics we sort of bitched about was how different some overseas students were valued over their Singapore based counterparts in terms of financial gratification despite not being too different from the rest of us here… all in all, it was about how the rich gets richer, and that the poor remain where they are if not worse off.
Friday, the day before Christmas EveHad a catch up and gift exchange session with smiley group less Brenda (for those in the unknown, smiley group is this bunch of great guys and girls from my year 1 Economics class)
We did dinner at this pizza place over at Wisma Atria (haha I was left with the crumbs by virtue of me knocking off late and the rest having a half day off for subject registration) after which we went over to Indochine for drinks. It was after much deliberation before the place was chosen
It was an excellent evening and I received my present, a tie from cheewee who was my angel (actually I found out he was my angel the night before when I met up with him to sign the card we got for Prof Ding, our FYP supervisor)
Pictures:Above: Me with Yanru, Vivian and Yuet Wan and the other 3 L brothers~~ Cheewee, Hanwei and Adrian
Thursday, Dong Zhi the festival you have Tang YuanIt skipped my mind that it was Dong Zhi and that it was the time of the year we eat Tang Yuans (those small round flour balls) till the cleaning lady at my work place told me as I was about to leave the office and she brought out some for me and insisted that I finish it…
She asked if I could help with the reading and translating of some bills and payments that she has received and although I was running a bit late it definitely did not seem right not to. It was over reading the payments that she told me about her family and upbringing; her kids were never home and she was given away as a kid…
It was then I was reminded that there are really so much people out there who are less fortunate than we are
Met up Cheewee at Kinokuniya to sign the card we got Prof Ding before going over to City Hall to meet Angela for my dinner and that was like 11 before we actually tucked into the food over at Glutton bay at the Esplanade
JIONG TING ♥
Sunday, December 25, 2005
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Monday, December 19, 2005
19 Dec – Monday
Aching all over – the consequence of a day of cable skiing in Batam yesterday.
Results will likely be out today or tomorrow… *sigh* and Christmas, just around the corner.
So far the day have been pretty quiet… no work for me… hmmm should I call it a blessing or should I complain about not having opportunities to learn more (can’t be I am that screwed up that no one’s giving me stuff right???)
Well, since nothing’s up. No one can fault me for blogging or doing my FYP~ discreetly obviously
Yesterday – Adrian’s birthday, Batam
This meant waking up early to catch the ferry at Harbour Front terminal. Hanwei and I were on the same train, cos he had forgotten about his passport (although Batam is just a ferry ride away, it sure ain’t Pulau Tekong).
We were all late, I used ‘all’ but one of my committee members from wakeboarding was exceptionally late… he actually woke up at the time of boarding and had to catch another ferry in to another terminal on the island.
The day was pretty fun and quickly passed by but it was a pity most of them didn’t really have the opportunity to try the other boards like the surfboard or the water skate.
The day was punctuated with a few highlights; we played Jenga (the one with the truth or dares on each block – and we had Hanwei running like a ballerina), and having Mike, the operator and 2 participants jumped down from the cable top which I think it was close to 2 to 3 storeys tall. The last, which was not so pleasant, was Hanwei misplacing his wallet but it was lucky that there wasn’t any important documents or money in it.
Saturday – Dinner and movie
It was quite a pleasant evening and we caught the show at lido and did dinner over at Fish & Co at Wheelock’s place.
Caught ‘Perhaps, Love’ with Angela because there wasn’t exactly a lot of films to choose from. The show was ok just that I thought that the ending could have been better – it is another of those shows about screen life mirroring life off the screen; just that the 3 parties involved are in this film are the same parties involved on and off the screen (a director, an actress and an actor – yah, you get the drift)
JIONG TING ♥
Monday, December 19, 2005
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Friday, December 16, 2005
Today,
Also known as the ‘end of the week’, has been a fairly slow day with nothing out of the blue as most of the senior bankers were out for a business lunch
Now???
They are back in office but I am still pretty sleepy… Call me mad. I actually asked if they require any help more than thrice today.
I should so be taking my own sweet time to do my stuff… Too bad I had forgotten to bring my thumb drive along; otherwise I probably would have been able to get on with my fyp writing…
Tomorrow
Movie with Angela – my first movie in quite some time, and the only show on the goggle box on weekdays I have so far been fortunate enough to catch is AM Singapore (that big and noisy Bloomberg screen at Raffles don’t count!)
Sunday
Cable ski at Batam – don’t ask me who I am going with… I have no idea other than a few of my wakeboard comm members besides Adrian, Hanwei and myself
JIONG TING ♥
Friday, December 16, 2005
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Thursday, December 15, 2005
*Yawns* I really got to be sleeping earlier… pimples starting to pop…
Thursday…
The start of yet another day of my internship
Another day to Friday, another two days to Saturday…
Ran into Iris who was on her way to JPM this morning on the train when Vivian called to cancel lunch because of the Mango sale… TK~~ you should so tell your girlfriend to spend less~~
Last night
Was again at the place I was on Tuesday night, Coffeecup Express with Senhao, Brenda and a few secondary school mates and it wasn’t around three that I got home… NOW I am suffering the consequences…
Back to the present
Trying hard to stay awake… No one’s in office except for the secretaries, me and another two perm staff… apparently there’s some important meeting scheduled today as the head of consumer products has flown in and haha no one apparently has any time for me.
Maybe I will start on some fyp stuff soon so that I can just enjoy my weekend… yah that sounds better…
JIONG TING ♥
Thursday, December 15, 2005
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Wednesday, December 14, 2005
The time is now 13:17… Stomach growling…
Awaiting the analyst in my office to go for lunch together because Vivian couldn’t make it due to her stained pants? Sian…
Results are going to be out soon… Double sian…
Just submitted the first draft of a profile to my associate for review… bet it will be all in red when it comes back to me…
Hmm… the bank just increased the dinner allowance to $20 from $8 and that there’s no more need for business wear on Fridays… but only perm staff are affected for the meal claims at least… but yeah it sure is not bad to be able to dress down on Fridays
Met Sen Hao last night to catch up over coffee… and sure seems that he is doing well and enjoying himself in China…
Think I will go remind the analyst that now is lunch… stomach growling… so growling…
JIONG TING ♥
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
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Thursday, December 08, 2005
Not bad… not bad at all. Actually had a three hour long lunch today courtesy of the bank… but that three hours was in part due to the poor services and attitude by the staff at this restaurant at Boat Quay - the supervisor was the worst of the lot; when one of the associates declined to pay the service charge, instead of apologizing he actually tried to argue that we were in the wrong (by insisting that they weren’t in the wrong)
Past few days:
Been doing profiles, profiles and profiles – of the same company. Every time it gets to my associate I feel kinda dumb actually looking at all the slight mistakes, misalignments or missing commas….
I kinda fumbled at the HSBC interview on Tues and I sure hope it won’t be fatal… nope… I was on time this time round just that I don’t really think I managed to justify some points I put forward completely…
Still been going back at 11ish odd just about every other day except Tuesday night when I left at around ten thirty to meet up with Zehan and Claudia briefly… not much of what you call a life ya?
Birthday last week… yah… I am so damn old… Hanwei got pissed drunk over 2 or 3 drinks at double 0 (definitely not one of the best places to celebrate your birthday – they only have aunties)
Today:
Time sure flies, it’s Thursday already and I do think I really need to buck up on my FYP stuff… really have quite a bit to go…
Next week… Pay check time yet again… Batam cableski should nothing go wrong…
OK! Today I shall leave office before 11. Hmm make that 1030…
JIONG TING ♥
Thursday, December 08, 2005
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Friday, December 02, 2005
It really have been some time since my last entry… I think three or four months must have just flown by…
The Past:
The school semester has come to an end…. Exams are over [sure am glad for that… I think I really screwed derivatives which was a really easy paper and Research Methods was just as bad…
Exams aside, Business Solutions was formed, the Case competition was held, people participated but then I can’t really say that I am all that happy with the structure but then again I should have perhaps given more thought about it before asking one big group of people to join. To me, it is all the same – BS is just an extended case club, and consulting will never take off.
So what else happened over the past 4 months in school? Hmmm… Wakeboarding club this time round helped supported the HSBC wakeboarding world cup and it was more about just sitting back and enjoying the action (it sure was a pity no one managed the 1080 that day).
More on the club- the committee that I have this year is pretty alright with quite a large share of year 1s though again as it is with the other committees, some people aren’t really into the sport but can you bum them off if they have been doing the administrative stuff well? It sure is high time that NTU have woken up to the peril s of the point system for hostel allocation and as usual it won’t affect my batch (think of the implementation of the double major, the GPA system and reduction of NS that was only just implemented after my batch – ok, that have nothing to do with NTU but yeah you get my point)
Oh yeah… attended several recruitment sessions and interviews and was bummed off a few with myself to blame too… haha I would have bump me out too if the interviewee was late [Oops… I was actually late for two of them]
Ran into a few familiar faces in the past week, one of them, a girl from my junior college days when I was lunching at raffles place (where else can I lunch?) . rerally quite a coincidence after having ran into her quite a few times already this year.
The Present:
Fast forward back to today. I am now an intern at an investment bank. Mergers & Acquisitions or Corporate Finance it is. The hours here are not as bad as the American banks [I am doing it at a European one] but the allowance is still pretty comfortable to live by.
The first week was not quite as good as I would have hoped, with day 1 being a day I would want to forget as I was a bit overwhelmed initially. Staff and colleges are pretty nice; they would take time to go through some of the stuff with me though they don’t necessary have to and that I have been given stuff to do that I could actually learn from [it is not to say I have not done my share to help out in the administration stuff especially after the office hours when the secretaries aren’t around] but yeah I must say life is pretty ok.
There was a drink and meal get together last Friday for myself and some of the colleges who have joined the firm in te recent past. That was followed by a sailing trip the following day on one of the senior director’s boat, got to say I really enjoyed that trip and the directors were all pretty warm and easy to talk to.
The future:
Not really looking or thinking too much about a career with the firm upon graduation yet; there’s only like 2 other Singaporeans besides myself in the office-one’s a first class graduate from LSE, and the other’s from Cambridge.
Got another interview scheduled for next week and I sure hope it won’t be the last of my interviews.
Is there any job that pays you an ibanking salary to bum around at the beach? If yes, please do tell me ya..
A hot girlfriend? Hmmm.. Any girl…
Maybe I don’t really want to graduate so soon after all… studying don’t really seem that bad after all…
Today and the next few days:
I want to go Zouk tonight! It sure has been a long time since I last clubbed and I really feel like I need it after all the studying for exams and the 15-16 hour days working…
JIONG TING ♥
Friday, December 02, 2005
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