All good things must come to a (traumatic) end (I)

London 6- 11 Feb 2008

It was a dream, two dreams, come true- firstly, to spend CNY in London, and secondly, to have a go at the credit risk internship.

The trip got off to a bumpy start. The SAS flight from Copenhagen to London’s infamous Heathrow Airport opened for boarding half and hour late, and took off even later. To add to the complication, the plane couldn’t land because the airport was overcrowded and had to circle in midair for something like 15 mins before landing- almost an hour late. My planned arrival at the hotel was initially 2pm, but circumstances forced me to adjust that estimate more than once. After getting interrogated about the purpose and duration of my visit, I was released into a crowded, messy arrival hall with signs everywhere. I took consolation in the fact that I could at least speak and understand the language of the country on whose soil I tread. Located the atm – the Barclays one, of course- got my hands on some local currency, and then proceeded to locate the tube and obtain directions to Canary Wharf, on the other side of London.

First time on the tube, I was immediately overwhelmed by the number of lines, and the myriad of colours used to represent them. But I was to be fooled by the seemingly visitor-friendly stations. Save for the Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf underground stations, almost all the rest I visited in my time here seemed to be a blast to the past, where the modern facility of an escalator seems to have been forgotten, or purposely omitted. It didn’t help that each time you got out of the train, it was about 3 flights of steps up to the interchange, either to get out, or worse, where you had to climb another 3 flight of steps down to the next platform to catch another train. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to be a spoilt brat; I feel justified bemoaning the state of train stations in a major capital of the world, when I have to lug all my luggage up and down all these flights of stairs, while wearing heels. it got especially unpleasant when I was heading to the airport just now, and the light rail (which I separate from the tube) was like 4 storeys underground from tube, and the endless stairs leading to it were so narrow I had to go down sideways, and cause a congestion behind me and a lot of panic within me. Anyway, back to my story about getting to Canary Wharf (which is kinda like the CBD area outside the main city- comparable to Marina back home). After I encountered my first shock (yes I was absolutely shocked that there were hardly an escalators) while at the interchange, I got onto the train, with my revised ETA of 3pm in mind, I saw a tiny whiteboard with some faint words written in whiteboard marker, conveying the message that there was something wrong with the jubilee line resulting in delays. The fear of being in a big city alone fled instantaneously, replaced by anxiety. I knew not of any other way to get to where I was supposed to be at, and I wanted to settle in for a bit before the dinner at 6pm. To cut the long story short, I finally got to my destination at about 3.30pm, only to realized that I had committed the same Tromso mistake, I had not figured out how to get from Canary Wharf station to Hilton Canary Wharf. I simply assumed that it would be a prominent building nearby. I asked around for some directions, emerged from the underground in my jeans and casual looking coat, and immediately stood out in the moving sea of black-suited, important-looking people walking briskly around. I had to cross to the other bank of the river Thames (no prizes for guessing that there was only stairs up and down both sides of the bridge) and found the hotel, to my relief.

(L) the entrance to the canary wharf underground. don't be fooled by the escalators, the tube is like many more levels down.

(R) just a random shot i took after crossing the bridge. the area looks like singapore eh?

From there, things took a turn for the better. I was welcomed by some friendly staff, and greeted by a posh-looking, huge room at the Hilton. Suddenly, I felt important as well. Heh. I had never spent a night in such a luxurious hotel, let alone have it all to myself. The bathroom was well-stocked with products from Crabtree and Evelyn, which immediately struck a chord within me. I thought about the time Elder Boon started giving away all these bottles/tubes of branded lotions during some etiquette session we were having, I now see where he has koped all his supplies from… haha! I was relieved to find an iron and an ironing board where I could straighten all the formal wear, whose crispness I had not managed to preserve. The check-in time was 4pm. I didn’t have much time left, so I perished the thought of trying to prepare for the interview (I consoled myself with the knowledge that I had read some of the credit risk management book which I borrowed from the CBS library last week on the plane) I spent some more time exploring the room and was so amazed that there were special speakers in the bathroom so that you could hear what was on the LCD tv. But of course, as I took my shower, I was too busy figuring out which tube to use, and what made up the smell of the La Source range. Anyhow, I should leave out some details cos this is getting waayy too long.

this has gotta be the fullest minibar you've ever seen!

my room, haha, in case you're interested...

Dinner was great, though it was quite late and I found myself snacking on the chips at the pre-dinner cocktail. All those workaholics were late, what else… haha. Anyway, that was also the night I kinda felt really intimidated, cos i met all the other candidates and they al had fantastic backgrounds and hail from grand, at least famous schools. Cambridge, LSE, warwick, I-can’t-remember-what-else, even some masters students from Dublin and germany. The networking session went quite well though, because the pple from the dept were all very friendly and they just cannot stop talking- which was mostly a good thing because sometimes they would get too technical and I would just pretend to understand while starting to zone out. The dinner was surprisingly tiring. It took like a few hours, and the barclays’ pple had to rotate tables after every course so as to meet all of us. The food was rather good tho, or let’s just say the best I’ve had since leaving for exchange. It was bread for starters, chicken for the main, and some delicious cake for dessert + the usual coffee tea. Totally reminded me of FT (finishing touch) fine dining cos I didn’t really know which utensils to use for what. And there were so many glasses of different sizes for each person – one for water (you can choose still or sparkling), one for red wine and one for white wine. Not forgetting the glass for beer, which looked distinctly different from the rest. Anyway, after a few hours, everyone decided that they were tired and we called it a night. Yay. It was about 1030pm maybe?

Headed back to my room to relax. Tried to read a bit of the book I brought to give me a greater (relatively) sense of security for the next day. And I kept getting calls to my room from sarah and james (david’s sister and brother-in-law), which was quite sweet cos they were being very helpful, with david being uncontactable somewhere in the air. Finally went to bed at 1 plus, excited, nervous and afraid I won’t be able to wake up in time the next morning.

We had to check out by 7.45am, which is insanely early. After some difficulty, I managed to drag myself out of the supremely comfortable bed, but of course, I was in quite a rush. Did QT, packed my bag (which was really difficult because they gave a really bulky door gift at the dinner which took up like 1/5 of my luggage space), and rushed out of my room, forgetting the copy of financial times left for me at the door.

Breakfast was a spread, I had a bagel with egg and some small tarts and tried to perk myself for the rest of the long long day. There was a trading game, highly stressful but quite fun (I know for sure that I’m not cut out to be a trader… I get too gan cheong and confused… heh), followed by a tour of the office facilities nearby, followed by 2 interviews, and finally, lunch! After lunch we had a group exercise, followed by a break where I tried to make all the locals tell me all the nice places to visit cos the day was soon drawing to an end.. and to break the tension… heh), and finally a case study interview, which we got half hour to prepare for. It was really tiring cos there were assessors for every single item, and the rest of the free time and meals were for networking. I found the case study the most challenging though, cos it was individual, and we had about 60-80 pages of material to plough through in order to answer some questions. Obviously there wasn’t gonna be time, and I realized at the end of the half hour that I completely missed out the key financial figures, I didn’t really analyse the cash flow statement, or balance sheet. Thank God, I had some time before being called into the room so I could take a quick look at those numbers. All that training from corp reporting and equity classes really helped there. And the guy was quite impressed, haha, though I didn’t really know what I was saying all the time. Through it all, I’m thankful that I wasn’t feeling too stressed, and I just kept praying for God to help me get through it. perhaps it was the peace He whispered to me in the knowledge my destiny has already been sealed; or perhaps, I was too excited to be in a new city and my mind was still in a holiday mode. And after that was done, I was finally released from the building! Time to see London, at long last!

some of the other candidates at the interview

I met sarah and david at oxford circus (downtown shopping area), and yes the tube stations only had stairs to service me. We walked around a bit, but soon realized that it’s quite impossible to walk along such a crowded street with luggage and all those things, so we decided to take a bus back to her place early. On the noisy bus, my phone rang. It was Richard, who sat beside me at dinner the last night, and he had good news for me. Except that it was so noisy I couldn’t really hear much, or convey my thanks to him. But it was quite an unlikely place to get an offer. I had david and sarah staring at me while I was talking, wondering if it was good news, and I was just putting the internship stuff out of my mind, for it was about 1.5 to 2 hours since I left the place. Anyway, my initial reaction wasn’t too great. I was happy and really thankful to God for seeing me through, but nothing really sank in – just a lot of fatigue.

oxford circus dressed up for CNY as well

Dinner that night was late, but really really really good. It was the first day of Chinese new year, and I had missed reunion dinner and spent the auspicious ‘da nian chu yi’ getting myself grilled. But sarah and james had made a reservation at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, where we headed at about 9plus. Boy, Chinatown was PACKED. There was such a huge sea of Chinese people, and lots of other people as well, of course. We had to wait quite a bit, but it was worth every bit. We had rice, roasted duck complete with plum sauce, steamed fish, vegetable, hotpot – it was the most authentic Chinese meal I’ve had since leaving home, and it was really really good. We all ate to our heart’s (and stomach’s) content, and it was almost midnight by the time we got back. Their place is nice tho, cosy and warm- with the cutest kitten ever. Sasha is super playful, and behaves almost like a dog. Everyone loves her though she can get quite naughty, like how she broke a glass the day we arrived while prancing around the kitchen tabletop.

(L) waiting for our turn to be seated

(R) tucking into the sumptous CNY dinner. thanks a lot for it, james & sarah! (:

chinese go to chinatown.

No this wasn't the traumatic end I was meaning to write about, but I’m just only about done with my 2nd day. Will spare everyone and put the rest in a separate post… stay tuned... (: