Another Weekend Trip

I'm off again in a few hours.. this time it's the big apple! Watch out NYC! :)

Rugby is a real sport

The weekend in Paris was amazing - thanks to my broker for inviting me along and giving me a "local's tour" of Paris. On Friday night after I arrived, he took me to this local pub where everybody spoke.. English?! It was apparently an ex-pat sort of place where all the Americans hang out and chill.. I did not think the day where English-speaking would be an ex-pat kind of place, but then again I was in Paris.

Saturday morning I took a stroll down to where he lives (which is conveniently right behind the Louvre), and had lunch with him and his wife. Ahh a lazy lunch which lasted until 2pm, and then we walked around Paris and sat down at some street-side cafe for a bit of people watching. This is what I call a proper vacation - doing nothing all day and relaxing. He had to rush home and take care of his baby for a little while, so I wandered around and went shopping near the hotel before heading back for a little nap. That night we went out for dinner and continued partying into the wee hours of the morning.. it was quite funny when we were trying to find a cab back to my hotel, he started chatting up this girl and we ended up walking this girl back to her hotel. The whole time she was telling us how rude she finds people in Paris and how she wish she could leave this instant.. well if anything it provided us with some entertainment on the way!

Now the main event was the England - France game on Saturday, which I must say that after watching live rugby matches that I have a new found respect for this sport. It's like watching American football but a lot more continuous and much more real. I really felt good with the atmosphere there and enjoyed every moment of the game (even though I was just learning the rules as I was watching).. since I had to work today, I had to quickly run off after the game was over to catch my Eurostar train back to London.

I think it was a nicely paced weekend break away from London, perhaps I need to do this more often to keep myself sane these days..

Happy Birthday Winnie!

Have a wonderful day.. too bad I couldn't be there with you, but you know that you're always in my heart and I hope you like your present! :D Love you always..

Paris here I come!

Off to Paris for the weekend to watch some rugby.. will try to keep blog updated while there (through the wonders of a mobile phone).

Financial Management

Ever since receiving my annual compensation, I've been receiving phone calls from various "financial management" companies regarding how I should invest money. So I thought well alright, I'll entertain you people while trying to figure out what you really do for your clients in terms of managing their finances.

Basically they just want me to park my money somewhere, and they make money on the commission they receive from the service providers that invests my money for me. Good work for them, they're not really doing much other than arranging for me to send my money over to these "funds" and "advise" me on which funds are worth investing in. This reminds me of those financial planners.. in any case, I think they didn't research enough to realise that I'm also working in the financial industry..

Gordon Ramsey @ Royal Hospital Road

I've done it. Finally the coveted three Michelin star restaurant in London was within reach, and I enjoyed a fine meal there last night. A broker invited me to this restaurant after stuffing me up last time when he invited all my colleagues out EXCEPT for me. Just as well, I wouldn't have had this opportunity to enjoy a fine meal here otherwise!

A little side episode before I arrived at the restaurant - I really had no idea where this restaurant is so I took a taxi from the tube station, and after getting off the taxi and walking into the restaurant, I hear the driver scream out the window, "I hope you choke while eating in there you wanker!" Umm.. okay.. I had no idea what he was going on about, but that put me in quite a bad mood because I don't think I've offended him in any way. That left quite a lasting image of London taxi drivers to me..

Otherwise, the food was fantastic. More than just fantastic, it was seriously deserving all my attention and I surely enjoyed every moment of it. We ordered the tasting menu which included all of Ramsey's famous dishes such as the lobster ravioli, and every bite was a new experience. Not to mention the wine that came with every course was just a perfect combination of the palate.. mmm..

Funny enough I bumped into Benedict's friend who had that party on Saturday at the table next to mine. Small world huh?

Night out on the town

Benedict called me yesterday and asked me if I wanted to go clubbing. I was shocked because a) Benedict doesn't club and b) Benedict doesn't club. He said one of his friends was leaving London for good, and was throwing a party down at Pacha. I haven't really been out for a few months, and since he promised me there would be nice girls amongst the friends, of course I quickly said yes :) (sorry Winnie.. hehehehe)

It was overall quite a fun night, dancing dancing dancing.. I miss clubbing really. I remember back in 4B I did a lot of that with Lisa and Prish (because quite frankly I didn't care much about school at that point and drowning myself in alcohol seemed to be a logical choice at that time). Although the club was fun (and yes, there were a lot of girls in very exotic dresses), I can't help but feel that it would've been more fun if Winnie or my friends were there with me. Perhaps it's true when they say that it's not really the club that makes the night, but the company.

Not to mention my alcohol tolerance has decreased since I stopped being active in this scene.. I barely made it home without throwing up everything I had for breakfast! Today is recovery mode..

At least it's consistent...

Even if I didn't make a career out of it...

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Disappointed...

Okay so our boys didn't really play their best, and we did lose to Switzerland.. but that didn't frustrate me as much as those Switzerland fans! There is supporting your own team, and then there is poor display of respect when they made fun of Canadian fans. What a poor showing of sportsmanship.. *sigh*

Despite the disappointing loss, it was a great trip to experience the Olympics! The atmosphere is what I really went for - everybody so pumped to support their home teams! (as a side note, when I boarded the plane early Saturday morning, it was basically packed with Canadian fans going to Turin just to cheer for the team as they were all wearing hockey jerseys) We walked through the main town in Turin and checked out a few places in the town... But let me just say that this town is NOT ready for the Olympics at all. We first had lunch at this little restaurant near the hockey arena, and afterwards we walked around for THREE hours to find every single restaurant booked out.. so we ended up back at the SAME restaurant for a 11:00pm sitting. How ridiculous is that.. Let's hope Beijing gets up to par and not embarrass themselves in front of the world stage!

Go Canada!!

In December when I was out to L'Entranger with some brokers, I briefly mentioned how I really liked watching hockey and what a thrill it would be to see the Winter Olympics this year. Well, they arranged it and we'll be heading down this coming weekend to watch Team Canada take on Switzerland! This is so exciting.. I have always to watch the national team play and especially after their gold medal in the last Olympics, there is so much hope for them to repeat.

Time to dig out my Roots sweatshirt and my Canadian flag..