The highlight of the week has been of course the birthday celebrations. Thank you all for the birthday wishes and messages. I really appreciate them and I do enjoy reading all those! Haha. Was also quite touched that a few people I didn't expect to remember my birthday actually wished me. In the end, I guess what matters most to me is that I celebrated my birthday with my family and close friends - people who mean a lot to me - and to spend time with them. It's a pity I didn't get to meet up with a few more friends I would have loved to meet. And not forgetting the presents too! Hahaha.
Sigh..experiencing pre-travel jitters again. Wish me luck and be back in a week's time!
I woke up this morning feeling kind of blue
And I stumbled out of bed and
Dragged my feet across the room
Right outside my front door was a rose
And a note that said "Somebody Loves You"
Oh..but out on the street it starts to pour
And before I get soaking wet
A total stranger runs to give me
The jacket off his back
I turn around to thank him
But he waves me with a smile
And I can hardly believe my eyes
He puts a halo and starts to fly
Take a look at the ordinary
Don't need to look for paradise
You could be next to an angel in disguise
I met a good friend for lunch
And we had a delicious meal
But I forgot to bring my wallet
I felt like an imbecile
But she was sweet, she gave me a treat and
Bought me a chicken sandwich
To take home for tea
Oh..but out on the street with nothing to eat
A man and his shopping cart go
Traveling to places
Collecting social graces
I give him my sandwich
And we chatter for a while
I see a rainbow wash over his eyes
He gives me his halo and I start to fly
Take a look at the ordinary
Don't need to look for paradise
You could be next to an angel in disguise
Don't try to hide away from me
I know you're by my side
Take a look at the ordinary
Don't need to look for paradise
You could be next to an angel in disguise
Everyday can be legendary
Every minute, an endless surprise
You could be the next angel in disguise
I woke up this morning feeling kind of new
I'm feeling much much better, and I actually played tennis again today, though I didn't really run that much. Hopefully I can recover fully soon!
My last week of non-work holidays. So fast so fast! Going to make the most of it. I'm still stuck with a lot of reading to do, but I'm too lazy to get down to it and I'm just slacking around. Oh well. I suppose, like a friend told me, I shouldn't feel guilty about enjoying myself during the holidays!
Donut craze has hit Jakarta too! (Though I suppose it's not a fad like it is in Singapore). There are 3 main donut chains here - Dunkin Donuts, J Co and Krispy Kremes. Krispy Kremes was just recently opened, so they are currrently having a promotion. Buy 1 dozen and you will get 2 more dozens free. Haha. Anybody wants Krispy Kremes donuts?
Still, this is not how I had imagined my time here would turn out like. It seems that I can't go out as much as I would have liked now and eat all the food I've been craving, which is a pity because I don't think I'll be back again during the summer break. To top it off, I haven't had the chance to meet with my primary school friends because most of them are busy with homeworks and having exams and they're only done with school next Friday, but I would have gone back to Singapore by then already. On one hand, I do want to meet up with them, but I also feel bad asking them to meet me, knowing that they are very very busy, since this is the week before finals. Ah well.
Well, I suppose all isn't that bad. My youngest brother came back from Singapore yesterday, and at least I'm not that lonely now. Haha. My mum told me not to go out too much with him though, because he has to study for common tests after the June holidays. Still, I'm glad for the company. Hopefully, we can watch Ocean's Thirteen together here because I don't think I would have much time to watch when I go back to Singapore, and I definitely want to watch it before I start work.
And yes, my dream final has been realized! It's going to be a Federer vs Nadal showdown again, and I'm really looking forward to it. In fact, both the men's and women's singles finals look exciting. I just hope that a local channel will broadcast the matches so that my dad and I can watch some tennis this weekend (I've been deprived of watching French Open ever since I'm back here!! Haha).
I've left the TV switched on in the background ever since this morning, and it's tuned to CNN. And believe it or not, the channel spent 2 hours on Paris Hilton's return to jail, from discussions of whether she should really go back to jail again to analysis of her mental health. I'm just incredulous at all this. I mean, being a renowed news channel, shouldn't they have spent the time on more significant news instead of on Paris Hilton and her jail scandal, which I can't really be bothered about? Or at least spend less time on it, instead of 2 hours. I was quite sick of it all by the half-hour mark actually.
Oh well. I guess I'm just feeling sore about being sick. But I suppose time spent resting at home isn't all that bad. I get to catch up with my reading (I hope to finish My Life As A Quant), and I've much more reading material now from the bank, among them, 5 research papers totalling 197 pagess!! I don't think they actually expect us to finish reading everything, but I intend to get some done. And hopefully, it will be a much better weekend.
Back in Jakarta for about a week more! Reached here on Tuesday and it was raining then, and the flight was very very bumpy (I was actually quite scared). I haven't been doing much the past two days, but I've managed to catch up a bit of my reading, which is good. I'm picking up My Life As A Quant again after I had given up reading it last year, and I'm actually enjoying reading it a lot more now. It's largely because the first part of the book that I had read last year is mostly on the author's earlier experiences when he was still a Physics professor and researcher (which I'm not really interested in), but the second part is about his experience in Wall Street, working for Goldman Sachs (which is obviously much more interesting). It is really eye-opening to read his account and find out a lot more about the field of quantitative finance, which is actually a lot different from banking and trading, because quants deal with a lot more of mathematics and programming in developing models for traders to use. The author went through about an interest rate model he had developed and it was quite tedious to follow the theory in the book, because there are so many terms I haven't come across before and I've forgotten quite a bit of what I have learned, but it is also interesting to read about the thinking process that went behind the model. And looking back, I'm rather glad that I will be doing something in investment banking instead of quantitative analysis or financial modeling because I don't think I will be able to handle the coding and programming part of the field (actually, computational finance majors should ideally be working in quantitative finance haha). On hindsight, I guess it's also better to read the second half of the book now than last year because I don't think I would have quite appreciated the book had I read it last year, given my lack of math finance knowledge then compared to now.
Sharapova was thrashed in the semifinal. Haha. Ah well. But I must say that even though I don't really like the colour of her dress, the dress looks really cute on her. Haha. I'm also hoping that a Nadal-Federer showdown will materialize.
Argh..getting hungry again!! I guess I should sleep before I start snacking. Haha.