My Out of office reply on my last day at work, set right after I sent out my farewell email -
"Hi, thanks for your email. I'm already out of the office, making a beeline for the tiki bar. Please contact dotdotdot."
Its been over a week since, and I havent made it to the tiki bar yet, but I will. Have been sifting through mounds of disorganized mail, renewing old friendships, and squealing with delight when Matthew proposed to Mary in the Christmas special of Downton Abbey. Making sure I've got my international license for that drive up and down California wine country and the coast, doing the visa check, and scouring for hotels in various cities.
When I make it to the proverbial tiki bar, sometime hopefully in the next week or so, I'll send a pigeon.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Stay, get paid.
The 3 magic words.
My mid year review has been done, and I'm ranked in the top 3 of my class. Given the recent promotion into this class and new competitors from Australia, I'd say it's a fairly decent job. That pay adjustment helped bollocks. Hehe. At the very least, I still get to sleep at night knowing I do decently meaningful stuff, even though it still tires the hell out of me. All this doesn't negate the fact that I'm truly tired, and pacing is key.
The only thing to remember when one is cranky and wants to throw in the towel is that, at least they pay you, right?
Getting sent off to hong kong tonight to see clients, but the only thing I'm looking forward to is the Yung Kee duck and sharksfin.
My mid year review has been done, and I'm ranked in the top 3 of my class. Given the recent promotion into this class and new competitors from Australia, I'd say it's a fairly decent job. That pay adjustment helped bollocks. Hehe. At the very least, I still get to sleep at night knowing I do decently meaningful stuff, even though it still tires the hell out of me. All this doesn't negate the fact that I'm truly tired, and pacing is key.
The only thing to remember when one is cranky and wants to throw in the towel is that, at least they pay you, right?
Getting sent off to hong kong tonight to see clients, but the only thing I'm looking forward to is the Yung Kee duck and sharksfin.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
in 2 and a half months...
1) The world (or the stock markets, at least) still can't make up its mind whether it wants to go back into a recession or not
2) I turned down an internal opportunity because I realized I might go out of my mind if I took it - it meant more work. It has since gone to my colleague. I'm not sure if I should have took it and brought my career further faster, with infinitely more travelling, but I know then that if I took it, that would have spelled the end of my sanity. Pacing myself is new, but I reckon I can learn it.
3) Have broken my back traipsing around Europe on a marketing trip to see investors - we made a fairly good team hunkering from airport to airport and city to city every day - team meaning my colleague carried the presentations while I decided what cab we took, what meals we ate, and where to dump the extra presentation slides. Now I know Paris Charles de Gaulle has the cheapest Longchamps but the most idiotic taxi drivers and Stockholm's Arlanda has fantastic salmon roe and stuffed moose. Copenhagen, Dublin and Edinburgh airports are but a blur. And London's Terminal 5 VAT desk only opens at 630am.
4) I got my car park amen hallelujah after 20months of waiting. Its reserved parking too so it means no jostling or racing for the limited first come first serve parking. Only catch? Its in the basement. Basement's creepy.
5) And this one's really random but amusing - Forbes Asia did a piece on the Popiah King and to quote them, he managed to "tap into the informal Chinese lending community" for 16,000 dollars. Seriously, thats what tai ee longs are called nowadays???!
------------------
What went down in Europe:-
Got to stay at the Langham for 2 nights
Saw London from the back of a cab (actually same can be said for the other cities too)
The morning walk in the Tuileries was probably a nice highlight of the trip, as was the Goyards
SOmetimes you just can't win, you know?
But sometimes, you can. Getting to a place in life where you get to see this, is winning enough for most of us.
2) I turned down an internal opportunity because I realized I might go out of my mind if I took it - it meant more work. It has since gone to my colleague. I'm not sure if I should have took it and brought my career further faster, with infinitely more travelling, but I know then that if I took it, that would have spelled the end of my sanity. Pacing myself is new, but I reckon I can learn it.
3) Have broken my back traipsing around Europe on a marketing trip to see investors - we made a fairly good team hunkering from airport to airport and city to city every day - team meaning my colleague carried the presentations while I decided what cab we took, what meals we ate, and where to dump the extra presentation slides. Now I know Paris Charles de Gaulle has the cheapest Longchamps but the most idiotic taxi drivers and Stockholm's Arlanda has fantastic salmon roe and stuffed moose. Copenhagen, Dublin and Edinburgh airports are but a blur. And London's Terminal 5 VAT desk only opens at 630am.
4) I got my car park amen hallelujah after 20months of waiting. Its reserved parking too so it means no jostling or racing for the limited first come first serve parking. Only catch? Its in the basement. Basement's creepy.
5) And this one's really random but amusing - Forbes Asia did a piece on the Popiah King and to quote them, he managed to "tap into the informal Chinese lending community" for 16,000 dollars. Seriously, thats what tai ee longs are called nowadays???!
------------------
What went down in Europe:-
Got to stay at the Langham for 2 nights
Saw London from the back of a cab (actually same can be said for the other cities too)
The morning walk in the Tuileries was probably a nice highlight of the trip, as was the Goyards
SOmetimes you just can't win, you know?
But sometimes, you can. Getting to a place in life where you get to see this, is winning enough for most of us.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
CPO Boy Said
We just took off from KLIA on the KL-SIN shuttle, about 8 hours ago. CPO Boy, lounging across the aisle from my seat, leaned forward and said,
"Someone told me that being an investment banker is like going to heaven without ever having to die."
I retorted,
"Oh God, no. It's more like being able to have airconditioning in hell."
"Someone told me that being an investment banker is like going to heaven without ever having to die."
I retorted,
"Oh God, no. It's more like being able to have airconditioning in hell."
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Welcome to June
Used to love June. The school holidays where we could do nothing but cycle around the village. How silly I was to be dreaming of growing up.
Now I'm all 'up' and older, I would give anything for a school holiday again. Heading to Singapore .. again. Makes me wish the island adjacent to our fair nation is Bali (like where my Indonesian colleague went for a coal conference), so I can attend my IATA conference there.
But as they say, what is, is what is. And so I make the dutiful trek down.
The only consolation being I can stay at my home away from home. I have tried Marina Bay Sands, and its impersonal coolness, sometimes loud and tacky (thanks to the Chinese tourists) and definitely touristy vibe is frankly not what a weary person wants to come back to after a long day.
Upps. Late for flight.
Now I'm all 'up' and older, I would give anything for a school holiday again. Heading to Singapore .. again. Makes me wish the island adjacent to our fair nation is Bali (like where my Indonesian colleague went for a coal conference), so I can attend my IATA conference there.
But as they say, what is, is what is. And so I make the dutiful trek down.
The only consolation being I can stay at my home away from home. I have tried Marina Bay Sands, and its impersonal coolness, sometimes loud and tacky (thanks to the Chinese tourists) and definitely touristy vibe is frankly not what a weary person wants to come back to after a long day.
Upps. Late for flight.
Friday, May 20, 2011
OHMAYYYYGODDDDD!
A month since my last post. A lot has happened, I got a job offer, I lost a job offer (well, not lost, but the role substantially changed to something entirely different and I wasn't sure I wanted to 'downgrade' myself). When you have been in investment banking, commercial (or horror upon horrors, SME) banking ain't really your cuppa tea.
I got notified of my bonus, or whatever there is of it, and went on a mental MIA for days as I took out my bonus frustration on quest upon quest of Sims Medieval - at least in the Sims I get Sims coins and wealth when I complete a quest well, I thought sadly, but I killed myself for a year for THIS SORT OF PAYOUT?!
I wasn't the only one, believe me. A certain sector head completely disappeared for days. You see, you have sacrificed, allowed your personal life to deteriorate, friends to dwindle, tempers to shorten, all in the name of chasing the payout, so you tend to take it very badly when the bonus comes out short of expectations. I wasn't the worst hit, I got promoted at least. And given regional coverage. (which means more trips to Europe and USA)
Management is in damage control mode, but although I have the best A class bosses (and I really mean A star, not @$$ class), I can't help but feel they were powerless to do anything in this case. Some idiot traders lost an unfathomable amount of money; the only small hint that anything was wrong was a tiny news paragraph on our bank closing down a certain prop desk in March.
I can technically still buy my sports car, but the tinge of excitement isn't there anymore. Because he bought a house over the weekend, and I'm wetting my pants thinking about the housing payments, although he has told me not to worry about a thing.
But a RM1.8mn house before renovation? OHHHMAYYYYGODDDDD.
Yes, exactly the same reaction when I checked into my bank account from Marina Bay Sands Singapore tonight to see my post-tax bonus amount. Can't wait to move to Ritz Carlton tomorrow. Marina Bay seems really ... pedestrian. We had to queue to check-in, and S has been threatening to tell me what the mainland Chinese that practically haunt that place do in the nice infinity pool at the Skypark. That on its own put me off going to the pool, so we just stuck to Ku De Ta.
I got notified of my bonus, or whatever there is of it, and went on a mental MIA for days as I took out my bonus frustration on quest upon quest of Sims Medieval - at least in the Sims I get Sims coins and wealth when I complete a quest well, I thought sadly, but I killed myself for a year for THIS SORT OF PAYOUT?!
I wasn't the only one, believe me. A certain sector head completely disappeared for days. You see, you have sacrificed, allowed your personal life to deteriorate, friends to dwindle, tempers to shorten, all in the name of chasing the payout, so you tend to take it very badly when the bonus comes out short of expectations. I wasn't the worst hit, I got promoted at least. And given regional coverage. (which means more trips to Europe and USA)
Management is in damage control mode, but although I have the best A class bosses (and I really mean A star, not @$$ class), I can't help but feel they were powerless to do anything in this case. Some idiot traders lost an unfathomable amount of money; the only small hint that anything was wrong was a tiny news paragraph on our bank closing down a certain prop desk in March.
I can technically still buy my sports car, but the tinge of excitement isn't there anymore. Because he bought a house over the weekend, and I'm wetting my pants thinking about the housing payments, although he has told me not to worry about a thing.
But a RM1.8mn house before renovation? OHHHMAYYYYGODDDDD.
Yes, exactly the same reaction when I checked into my bank account from Marina Bay Sands Singapore tonight to see my post-tax bonus amount. Can't wait to move to Ritz Carlton tomorrow. Marina Bay seems really ... pedestrian. We had to queue to check-in, and S has been threatening to tell me what the mainland Chinese that practically haunt that place do in the nice infinity pool at the Skypark. That on its own put me off going to the pool, so we just stuck to Ku De Ta.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
what happens when the old becomes the new again?
Just when I thought I could wind down after a Singapore marketing trip last week, I find out I have to go to Jakarta and Bangkok next week. I guess this fully justifies my trip extension in Bangkok to go raid Chatuchak again.
Funny how as you get older, you get fairly set in your tastes and ways and you keep going back to the same places. I have a very specific set of things to do in Bangkok - where I've trekked to every year for the past 3 years to pay homage to Chatuchak, Platinum Mall, the tailor at Amari Watergate and my favourite Thai restaurant.
Similarly if I ever go to Singapore, it will be a beeline to that Singapore seafood restaurant at the Singapore Flyer and Takashimaya's Nespresso for my coffee pods. In Paris, it will be the food hall at Galeries Lafayette, that quirky colorful shop at the base of the Sacre Coeur and the signature Laduree on the Champs Elysees.
So, in that respect, how would you view a possible decision of going back to a familiar place in your career? Arguably, most things are different, but some things will likely be the same. Would you deem it as mere nostalgia, a sure sign that what you actually should be doing is keep moving on and away?
We grow as human beings. I am still too young to have learnt the lesson that sometimes you may grow back into a place which you thought you have outgrown. But I am learning about it, and I hope I will make the right choice when it boils down to crunch time.
There are a lot of things I miss - it's now just making sure I can handle facing the things I don't like which I'm positively sure are still there, in addition to returning to the good that has changed much, and to be (hopefully) instrumental in charting a course that goes nowhere but upwards and onwards.
Or in an oft-quoted wise man's words with almost always a solemn look on his face - "To infinity and beyond"
Funny how as you get older, you get fairly set in your tastes and ways and you keep going back to the same places. I have a very specific set of things to do in Bangkok - where I've trekked to every year for the past 3 years to pay homage to Chatuchak, Platinum Mall, the tailor at Amari Watergate and my favourite Thai restaurant.
Similarly if I ever go to Singapore, it will be a beeline to that Singapore seafood restaurant at the Singapore Flyer and Takashimaya's Nespresso for my coffee pods. In Paris, it will be the food hall at Galeries Lafayette, that quirky colorful shop at the base of the Sacre Coeur and the signature Laduree on the Champs Elysees.
So, in that respect, how would you view a possible decision of going back to a familiar place in your career? Arguably, most things are different, but some things will likely be the same. Would you deem it as mere nostalgia, a sure sign that what you actually should be doing is keep moving on and away?
We grow as human beings. I am still too young to have learnt the lesson that sometimes you may grow back into a place which you thought you have outgrown. But I am learning about it, and I hope I will make the right choice when it boils down to crunch time.
There are a lot of things I miss - it's now just making sure I can handle facing the things I don't like which I'm positively sure are still there, in addition to returning to the good that has changed much, and to be (hopefully) instrumental in charting a course that goes nowhere but upwards and onwards.
Or in an oft-quoted wise man's words with almost always a solemn look on his face - "To infinity and beyond"
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