january memories

in a pathetic attempt to keep up to date with my blog, i'm now publishing some photos from january, meet-ups before i left.... only 1 month late, not that bad lah huh...

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sec 2 gang meetup!

our first gathering since... sec 2! haha.... missed rachel in london tho!

clockwise from top-left: jiahui - campus superstar; weixuan - lawyer to be; val -upenn girl; jan - still dark as always!

the nice thing is... everyone seems to be quite the same... just a lot more successful or on the way to success, as compared to when we were 14...

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then we had our last exco meeting for 2007 (in 2008, nonetheless!) at this restaurant/cafe whose name i've forgotten! argh!

the most disorganised exco meeting ever, pple couldn't hear each other, and pple just wanted to eat. haha.

go and tell, yeah?

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a last minute meet-up with the clowns after i bumped into adrian while re-formatting my laptop in school. he's really quite good at organising stuff, just a few calls to gather the gang, chauffeur included!

nice cool effect, haha (:

jiegang, stanley, adrian: the clowns.

anyway, free advertisement for haato, some jap ice-cream + waffles place near pandan valley...

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a mini hockey girls gathering!

zhimin, weixuan, honlyn, me, velda

it's quite... intimidating... to be at dinner with 3 medical students and 1 law undergrad. luyi: thanks for pang-seh-ing!

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celebrating bren's birthday on 11th Jan

i dunno where the rest of photos went! i think some pple didn't send them to me...hmmm...

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one last family gathering

grown-ups at the table...

...and kids in front of the tv as usual...

i hear that joel now walks about. not so lazy anymore huh...

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jaymie!

yet another long overdue meetup! but i'm really glad she did, we haven't spoken in so long. and i was so so glad that she's now a Christian too! that was truly one of the last things i would have ever imagined... it's amazing and really really encouraging...(:

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i think i'm missing more pictures tho, i did meet up with more pple but i dunno where the photos are! and i can't remember if we even took any pictures at emerson's place when we had a mini chocolate fondue party! argh!

the bottomline is... i miss all these pple, and more. glad that everyone's doing great back wherever they are tho.

thank God for the internet!

great service that deserves a mention

ok, good news first, or bad news?

i guess bad, cos it's more logical...

anyway, david's laptop kinda died (as in, crashed) on saturday night just suddenly out of the blue... the hard disk just won't start up and it's making funny clicking noises. so carol goes online to search out the support number of IBM in Denmark. she finds a service support number and an address, presumably that of IBM.

so on Monday, david takes an hour's journey to a nearby borough north of copenhagen, called lygnby, only to find some farms, horses, and an IBM office - who couldn't help. meanwhile, carol tried to call the service line, only to get transferred around (in danish, though they were all rather helpful, polite and proficient enough to switch to english right away) only to find that the service support team is actually 37km west of copenhagen, instead of north, and that she had made the poor boy journey so far for nothing...

well, almost nothing, cos he found ikea on the way there... :p

anyway, so they thought it'd be impossible that they had to bring the laptop all the way to that faraway place... and decided to email the service group, which was on a totally different non-IBM website instead. after a few glitches with the model number, she found out that there was still an international 4 hour response warranty on the laptop and they asked for her phone number and address. when that was done, back came back a computer-generated reply (in danish of course) saying that they had received confirmation. everyone home at griffenfeldsgade was puzzled as to what that meant but went to sleep with the mystery unsolved. that was last night.

this morning, carol gets rudely waken up by her phone at 9.30am, and greeted by a string of fast-paced danish (sheesh she didn't even catch the 'hej', or the greetings that she was practicing while doing danish hw the night before - on phone greetings!). anyway, this man on the phone switched to engelsk right away and said that he was 15 minutes away.... so out climbs carol out of bed..

(ooh ok he's at the door now... talk about efficiency and punctuality... to be continued...)

wow, it was a 5 min job! he turned on the laptop, heard the noise, opened a new hard disk and replaced it. no questions asked and no signature required even. heh... but now carol has to call IBM again to get them to send the software.... well, the bad news is that all the information inside is not recoverable, and it would cost 25000 dkk to recover it... by some company called ebase, so no thank you... sorry david...

btw, while he was here, he heard the whines of carol's fujitsu as well, and suggested that she called up the serivicegruppe too........... might as well.... the fujitsu must not die!

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

London

6-11 Feb 2008

The next day was Friday. We planned to wake up early to explore the city a bit because daylight was limited. But, being so utterly exhausted and knocked out, by the time we stepped out into the cool London air and into the unusual burst of sunshine, it was close to noon. We went wherever our feet would take us. Strolled down to the northern bank of the Thames and continued walking along it. All the attractions were more or less concentrated in the same area. The pictures tell the story of our walk.

tower bridge in the background (we were obviously talking while taking the pic!)

london bridge - nothing spectacular leh.

on the ground floor of tate modern - the art museum. there's this giant crack across the entire floor. carol tries to jump over while david inspects it closely...

Street performer. these things/people move only when you give them money.

the invisible man who terrified some kids...

it was way too glaring for us to see anything on the london eye

view over the thames

staring forlornly at the v-day decor near the eye

Finally, we crossed back to the north bank to the houses of parliament and the big ben. David loves correcting anyone who refers to the clock tower as big ben, because apparently only the bell in there is called ben. *shrug*.

houses of parliament and the big ben across the westminster bridge

Then we headed to the famed Westminster Abbey, a massive gothic cathedral which was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We paid 7 quid each to get in, and david didn’t like it very much, because it is basically a huge burial ground for monarchs, royalty and other famous people in Britain’s history. It was quite an experience I must say, and an eye-opener for me, to see how the Anglican practices of death and burial are. The usually create a statue of the person lying face up to the sky, with hands clasped in prayer towards heaven or folded. It was really dark and kinda eerie. But this same site is also the place for coronations and funerals, as well as for a few services a day. We stayed for the evensong service, and the singing by the lay vicars was good…

in front of westminster abbey
We were supposed to meet hanyan and her friends for CNY dinner, though it turned out to be at an Indian restaurant. Her coursemates were nice and friendly, and dinner was generally fun and pleasant. Everything was fine until we had to pay, and it came up to 23 quid a person, which was really exorbitant for nan and curry and stuff like that. That meal totally blew our budgets, as I had only withdrawn 150 pounds for the both of us. But anyway, it was a nice experience, and really good to see hanyan again.


Saturday, we planned to take a day trip out of London with Juline. And so we picked Windsor castle to go to, about 1 hour west of London. But once again, we were late meeting juline, and we only arrived in windsor at about midday. But the sprawling grounds on which the majestic castle stood on was a true sight to behold. And once again, we were blessed with sunlight aplenty. As we were buying our tickets to get in, we realized to our horror that we had no more money left! Anyhow, we managed to get in and joined one of the free tours. The queen wasn’t in, so the union jack flew proudly from the Round Tower instead of the royal standard. This castle was built in 1066 by William the Conqueror and expanded over the centuries by each incoming monarch.
“Windsor Castle, in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, is the largest inhabited castle in the world and, dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, is the oldest in continuous occupation. The castle's floor area is approximately 484,000 square feet (about 45,000 square metres).
Together with Buckingham Palace in London and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, it is one of the principal official residences of the British monarch. Queen Elizabeth II spends many weekends of the year at the castle, using it for both state and private entertaining.”
(source: Wikipedia)

We took a long long tour of the castle and it was really worth it. Photography wasn’t allowed inside the castle so I’ve got some pictures from some websites. David’s favourite room was St George’s Hall, where there are more than 900 plaques bearing the coats of arms of the order of the Knights of the Garter, the highest order of chivalry bestowed by the British monarch today. The story behind the order is an interesting one, and is intricately intertwined with the history of Great Britain as a whole. But I shall not go on.

st geroge's hall (http://www.victorianstation.com/windsor.html)

One of my favourite rooms was Queen Mary’s dollhouse. It is basically a miniature castle built on a scale of 1:12 where everything is authentic, i.e. the cars in the garage have real working engines in them, there is real wine in the wine bottles, the works of art on the walls are real masterpieces painted by famous artists of that time, books in the library with real words on every page, real water and electrical systems, you get the gist. It was really awesome. It is reputed to be the most famous doll house in the world.

After we had enough of feeling like royalty, treading on a place so rich with history, we gave in to our growling stomachs. Nando’s was our lunch/dinner destination, think Kenny Rogers. We also bought fudge from some famous fudge shop for sarah and james, then it was back into the city we go. Didn’t have time to go take a look at Eton College, England’s most famous boarding school. Stayed with Juline that night, and we spent the night watching a movie and talking in her room, which was nice.

a random picture of colourful shadows outside the royal festival house

Sunday is the Lord’s day, so off to church we went. I’ve always wanted to visit Metropolitan Tabernacle, the place where the prince of preachers, CH Spurgeon spoke with much conviction and power. Today, it’s pastored by Dr Peter Masters, whom Dr Tow and people in the Calvary circle have spoken much about. Juline and I walked to Elephant & Castle from her dorm in Waterloo, finding upon arrival that we were utterly underdressed for church in our blouses and jeans. The service was really really good though, something I felt at home right away, though they sang directly from the Psalms to tunes using the metric system and some other hymns. The preaching of the word was solid as well, Dr Masters spoke from Colossians 4, a passage I never thought an entire sermon could be preached. He expounded on the different characters mentioned in the closing verses of the book, and drew parallels to our Christian lives. I really look forward to going back there, though I also feel quite bad for not visiting new life bp church, which was a greater distance away.

Went for lunch in Chinatown, in a shop which sells Singaporean and Malaysian food. I had char kuay teow, but it still wasn’t as good as any random coffee shop you’ll find in Singapore. But the prices were decent. Walked around covent garden a bit, but it was ridiculously crowded, being the weekend of CNY. Leicester (pronounced ‘Lester’ don’t ask me why) Square featured fireworks every hour.

another street performer

We split off from sarah and james and proceeded to meet serena, nancy and Sophia. We walked around forever trying to find a place to sit down, and had to finally settle on Macdonald’s. how pathetic is that! It was nice to see them again, just to chat up a bit and for the knowledge that there are friends and brethren in the area, albeit only for the day since nancy and serena had come down from Newcastle and Warwick for Chinese new year.

the 4 pandanites: david, nancy, sophia, serena. flanked by carol and juline. at trafalgar square with a sea of chinese people in the background (besides the national portriat gallery)

We split off and took a walk to regent street, and back to Chinatown to get Chinese takeaway, and then for a long (i.e. 1 hour) slow walk back to james’ and sarah’s place, along the river. I was barely there for 10 mins though, we because we took so long to walk there, and I had to meet juline to walk back to her place. It was crazy far, all that walking. Anyway, so I thanked them for their hospitality, kindness and generosity, far warmer than I had expected or deserved, and told david that I’d see him back in Copenhagen.

some night shots:

shaky shot of big ben and the houses of parliament, and oart of the london eye in the background.

tower bridge lit up at night

london bridge and the moon.

Juline and I headed to puisan’s place just to meet up with her. I’m not exactly that close to pui, but we talked like old friends would, over the most amazing chocolate cake ever, and time fleeted by. Before we knew it, it was close to 1am, and it was a really chilly walk back to juline’s place. Packed my luggage and prepared to leave, and went to sleep.

juline, i, puisan - looking rather uniform

Woke up rather early to leave for London city airport. I was in a mini-rush, though I was pretty confident of catching the plane since the airport was not far away. But alas! It was the peak hour crowd (on top of the endless flights of stairs which made the walk more torturous with the luggage again), as well as the notorious tube failings. As I headed eastwards nearing the airport, I got more and more fed up with the DLR (docklands Light Rail – similar to LRT in SG). The driver was going at 5km/hour, I promise. And with all these delays, my watch reminded me that the check-in counter was closing soon. When we finally pulled into London city airport, the driver announced over the system “…we apologise for the delay this morning, but if it’s of any consolation, all the planes are delayed as well”. But that time, I was so fuming mad with the whole situation that I just dismissed his comment as a tasteless joke, and ran into the terminal.

I rushed to the self-check-in machine, fished out my dying handphone for the confirmation number and checked-in, heaving a huge sigh of relief. Then, things started to turn. The screen said that my flight was delayed till 12.55pm. I was due to fly at 10.05am, and I had intended to reach back in Copenhagen in time for Danish class at 3.20pm. anyway, I headed to the counter to do my bag-drop. That was when I started to sense that something was wrong. The airport was bustling with activity, full of working professionals on their handphones and blackberries, and there was some sort of excitement in the air. I looked up onto the departure screen, on to see this:

my flight wasn't even on the screen yet cos all the earlier flights were still on the ground.

Most flights were delayed, from as early as 6.50am, and some were cancelled. I only managed to tag my luggage, and was told to keep checking back on the screen for further instructions. There was heavy fog outside (I should have guessed cos I did see that the DLR was moving so slowly cos we could hardly see ahead of the train), and flights were grounded. I could deal with the delay, I was all prepared to miss Danish. So I found a seat and read my storybook. At about 11+am, I decided that I should go check the screen. My heart sank immediately, when the letters c-a-n-c-e-l-l-e-d flashed beside my flight number. I was honestly dismayed and lost, never in my life had I experienced such a situation, and I was all alone this time. by which time my handphone had also officially died. So I joined the snaking line at the luftansa/SAS ticketing counter, so that I could book myself on the next flight out. While standing in the line, I witnessed many pieces of luggage being pushed out in trolleys, coming off the planes onto which they were loaded; and heard people on the phone cancelling meetings and arranging for people to come pick them from the airport to go to office instead. There was a lot of commotion as airport stuff had to shout out destinations to get people to claim their luggage. It was a busy day at the tiny airport. After what felt like forever, it was my turn. I was booked for the 1755h flight back to Copenhagen and issued a measly 5pound meal coupon. I had another 5 hours to burn, and considered my options really quickly. I borrowed the phone from the counter and called david, and arranged to meet him.

David was on the way to town to oxford circus to meet juline to return her her map which we had left in his pocket the day before. But once again, we were really late to meet her, but this time it was of no fault of ours. The stupid tube got delayed at some station again, and the driver came onto the PA system only to announce that ‘the people at the control station refuse to tell me what’s wrong, so I just wanted to say that I’m in the dark just like everyone else’. That was hilarious, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. The whole train erupted in laughter, and I guess that cooled the boiling lava of frustrations momentarily. I ran to niketown to give juline a big fat surprise. The look on her face when she saw me was really classic. I related my story and hopefully she forgave us for being so late. All 3 of us headed to Hamley’s, this super huge toy shop to jalan jalan since we all had nothing much to do. And so we spent the next hour plus hanging out in the 6 storey toy shop, bigger than toys ‘r’ us and more diversified. From Paddington bears to peter rabbits to tamiya toy cars and Barbie dolls, to chess sets and board games for kids and adults, to magic tricks and lego, there was everything a kid could every dream of and want. It was an amazing store which kept us busy for quite a while.

Soon, it was time to head to the airport again. David and I had a milkshake at macdonald’s before catching the train- he to stansted airport and for me, back to city airport. Our flights turned out to be about the same time, and we landed back in Copenhagen at about the same time as well… which all worked out well and good cos there was someone to help me carry my luggage all the way back home (:

one last picture with the king, i mean, bear tut @ Hamley's

But yes, it was a traumatic last day, with all kinds of emotions running high. Anxiety in to morning, to shock, hope, then dismay, frustration, and joy. Too many for a single day, I reckon.

So much for my first trip to London.

A Romantic Valentine's Evening

we had a double date. haha. if you want to call it that. actually, we just stayed home and cooked dinner, but it was a really really good dinner. jiamin was the chef, and debbie helped to prepare. thanks guys (:

let's see, we had:

starter: Aglio Olio with prawns cooked with lemon juice.

lots and lots of olive oil in this dish butreally really yummy!

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main course: steak with baked potatoes

the chef had the steak done to our preference, and it was really tender. and he even created a milestone marinating the raw meat with his bare hands, which he would usually not even touch.

the potatoes were done by debbie, marinated with rosemary, butter, oil and parsley.

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dessert: 1 super chocolate chip cookie, 1 scoop of cuppucino ice-cream, 1 scoop of neapolitan ice-cream, i small slice of strawberry tart.

basically put together from what we had in the fridge. the tart was leftover's from jianfeng's birthday tart the night before. haha. but it was good, expensive tart from a famous bakery back in christianhavn. yock song went all the way there to get it last night.

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+ tea. though it was chinese tea, not english tea. haha. we drank tea while watching moulin rouge, which was a perfectly romantic idea (thanks to movie buffs david & debbie), except that we were also scrambling to book air tickets, because the 1-for-1 valentine's day sale was ending at midnight. that's what i spent most of my day today doing actually... heh. after coming home from school in the afternoon. it's such a waste of time, and a tedious chore having to look for the cheapest tickets on the cheapest airlines and the best dates and times.

all in all, within 6 hours, i booked:

1. copenhagen - geneva; zurich - copenhagen (19 - 26 march) to go skiing at charmonix with sarah and james, and then to visit luyi, bingkai and mac at st gallen's.

2. copenhagen- amsterdam - copenhagen (27 feb - 3 march). just jumped at this cos the tickets coming back was 0dkk before taxes.

3. copenhagen - stockholm (30 apr). this was a 1-way ticket because we havent decided how we were gonna come back. it was 6 dkk per person before taxes. this is for a big trip to stockholm-helsinki-estonia-st petersberg-moscow. we just signed up for this too.

we almost booked:

(but awaiting the next round of sales, which we hope will be soon!)

1. cph - berlin (we'll jump at the next offer, prices weren't good enough)

2. cph - bergen (couldnt get the right dates to go, but we'll prob go in may)

3. cph- prague (still too early to plan for the eastern europe trip!)

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leftovers: david's creation

happy valentine's day! (:

love,

the boring people at griffenfeldsgade

(for some strange reason, we only took pictures in gender... haha)

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... (: