Friday, March 17, 2006
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
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..
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..
Saturday, March 11, 2006
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).
Friday, March 10, 2006
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..
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..
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