So yesterday began the annual eat-drink-and-make-merry week for the petroleum world, also known as APPEC. It happened the way it normally does, really, with serpents (double headed and otherwise) descending upon several nominated ballrooms across central Singapore, making ostentatious merry in true fat-cat fashion. For me, I went there to meet new people, gather intel and catch up with old friends.
That would be considered business as usual, and will not merit a post in itself. But I met this REALLY #&*^$(#&^#$ irritating analyst guy, and I simply had to blog about it. It started when I interrupted a 3-man group setting, initially intending to bug my friend to stop jabbering and leave for the next party, and to grab the other guy in the ballroom so we can set off for Raffles Hotel. As a matter of courtesy, my friend introduced me to the other 2 in the group, and this guy standing across from me introduced himself and launched into what-do-you-do questions, and when he found out that I was an analyst, he immediately sank his hooks in and started grilling me. Not satisfied that we were about 1 metre apart, he came over to stand beside me and started asking me about my view on the market AND EVERYTHING!!!
Now if you’ve never been an analyst, you probably won’t quite understand why I felt so violated. You see, to form a view, analysts such as I take huge amounts of data and crunch numbers all day. We try our best to extract information from our sources based on the goodwill that we’ve received over past interactions (this involves lots and lots of drinking sessions where I slowly but surely destroy my liver). People don’t simply give information like that. This market is completely opaque. My friend, a buy-side investment banker, pores through huge stacks of annual reports in order to make a single buy/sell/hold recommendation. Another guy studied 6 years for his PhD, and condensed his final thesis into a single A4 sized paper. Though clearly not of that calibre, I do still feel the pinch.
So that one view that we have, such as “crude is going to recover”, has, supporting it, copious amounts of S&D data, research work, hours of talking to people, many favours claimed. So you can expect my inner turmoil when he asked me questions about my view: Should I reply him so as to impress him and sound smart (I know the naturally neurotic part of me does)? Or should I tell him that I really don’t know, and “analyst” in my company is another name for glorified admin staff. Or should take the middle ground and just give him a shallow overview of what my real view is? This was the option I chose, and clearly, it was the wrong tack to take. Eventually I had to cut loss by quickly saying that I have to go say hi to someone else and running for dear life.
So this morning, to continue with the BBQ fest, he started the yahoo-grilling with this:
IA (irritating analyst): morning
IA: [Bank] FO guy
IA: how are you?
I of course replied with trite polite remarks [not the wisest move].
Me: Hi there.. Good.
Me: Was nice meeting you yesterday.
Move to establish contact,
IA: so do I
IA: lets keep in contact
Me: Sure.
…and we’re off
IA: before in [pretentious American bank], what were you doing?
Me: Before that I was in school..
I tried to turn the heat back on him, unsuccessfully.
Me: You? Before [huge oil major] what did you do?
IA: hahaha
IA: in [huge oil major] I was opearting gasoline cargoes and refinery supply planner
Because the scud missiles came right back.
IA: i meant in [pretentious American bank] what did you do?
Me: I was an analyst in [pretentious American bank].
I took the longest time possible to respond to his yahoos, and after a while, I decided to pull the plug on this conversation.
Me: Sorry for the delayed response. Quite busy.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
An Interlude
This was quite a funny conversation I had with a friend. I don't know why it's so funny, but here it is. A little toilet humour for the afternoon.
Tan: think SL racist
Tan: he didnt want to be alone in a hotel room in the middle of the night with an aneh cha bor
Me: He scared kenna assraped ah?
Tan: nope
Tan: he scared he come home with coconut oil smell
Then we talked about SL's wife..
Tan: no la she's fierce n has his balls in her hand
Tan: when they walk together
Tan: she leads him by the testicles
Tan: think SL racist
Tan: he didnt want to be alone in a hotel room in the middle of the night with an aneh cha bor
Me: He scared kenna assraped ah?
Tan: nope
Tan: he scared he come home with coconut oil smell
Then we talked about SL's wife..
Tan: no la she's fierce n has his balls in her hand
Tan: when they walk together
Tan: she leads him by the testicles
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Vietnam - Part 1
Vietnam
I think it's about time to make good my promise to update at least one of my trips, and I shall start with the earlier one - Vietnam!
Frankly I didn't quite enjoy Hanoi as much as I'd thought I would. I actually returned from the trip more exhausted than I had left for it.
It was a 3-day-2-night trip and I had arrived in Hanoi on a Thursday night - 8pm. The itinerary was to tour the area and acclimatize myself as well as scout for travel deals for a 2D1N trip to Halong Bay, one of the must-not-miss sights in the outskirts of Hanoi. According to the conceirge at my hotel, most of the local sights (at least those that require some sort of admission into some sort of building) were closed on Fridays. Since I had only budgeted for 1 day to do the city tour, that left me with no choice but to book the Halong Bay trip for the next day, and tour Hanoi city when I return. And here's the kicker: ALL the tour agencies were closed by 8pm. So left with not much in the way of choice, I had to book the trip with the hotel.
2 reasons why that was the W-R-O-N-G move.
1. I got ripped off by a good USD $25-35, depending on whether you choose to believe that the dodgy travel agency is farming out the trip to a more experienced company and not doing it themselves, or not.
2. The "tour agency" at my hotel treated me REALLY REALLY shabbily. I shall explain point 2.
From Hanoi city to the wharf where we take a junk boat to Halong Bay is 3 hour bus ride. I had expected to be on the same bus as the two Canadian ladies I had made friends with at breakfast, where we found out we had booked the same trip. BUt no. Since I Was a lone traveller, they took it upon themselves to squeeze me into the front seat of an already-full minivan so as to maximize seating. Not the comfy sort of front seat, mind you. I was squashed between the driver and the tour guide. It was so uncomfortable that it's seriously not funny. And naturally, the ang moh ladies sat in some other comfy van lah.
You know the important thing about travelling solo, kids, is to make friends. This widens your horizons and allows you to meet new people and learn interesting stuff about their culture. So imagine my irritation when my new friends were callously ripped away from me (though I don't think they felt a similar connection, but hey! I was alone and needy!). I was too shocked to protest, and by the time I had recovered from that, I was already in the van.
Like any streetsmart traveller worth her salt, I quickly bounced back and got to know 3 Kiwis - Eamann, Caroline and Steve. (No I didn't go to the local Cold Storage and buy fruits. Kiwis are people from New Zealand.) And don't ask me why I hang out with the angmohs. Seriously, it wasn't intentional. Eamann (pronounced eh-men) was really nice and super friendly. Even when we played cards and Steve was trash-talking him and he was losing rather badly, he was really good natured about everything. When Steve was like, "Eamann, may I have your XXX card (which was the final card to cement Steve's utter and absolute victory)", Eamann was like, "yes you may". I'd be like, "KNN WTF you wanna take my card. No! I'm not giving you my fkg card. In fact, I'm not playing with you anymore! &*#@#$^@%" and so on.
So we hung out. And to be fair, Halong Bay was breathtaking. Pause for pictures.
Back to my narration about how I got stiffed by the Vietnamese.
When I booked the trip with the moron at Conceirge, I chose to stay in a shared room, because it would otherwise be an additional USD17 to sleep in a room by myself, and I didn't mind a room mate to get to know. I had asked specifically if it would be a female room mate. "Yeah yeah, of course", said the moron.
So imagine my surprise - wait, make that horror - when I found out that I was going to share a room with a greasy haired PRC-looking 40-year-old-looking man. I was apparently not the only one horrified by the prospect, because Eamann was raising hell about how that arrangement was completely ludicrous. I actually said that I would pay the additional USD17 for the single room. The tour guide protested, saying that they didn't have any more rooms available. (It turned out that there were 3 more empty rooms on the junk, so believe you me, I don't understand why he said that.) In any case, after Eamann's hissy fit, I got to stay in a double room by myself, *grinz*, at no additional charge, *double grinz*. So at least one effort to mistreat me was thwarted. Vietnamese kow tow to the angmohs, it seems.
Our little group of 4 grew to include 3 Brit girls and an American guy. We had shitloads of fun and on the last day, the tour guide came up to the group and pointed to me. "You'll be taking another van on the way back". Now, obviously surprised that I was singled out yet again to be ill treated, I was more or less mute (As you can tell, my reflexes aren't great, and I have the word PATSY tatooed in invisible ink on my forehead.) I dumbly and quite impotently asked, "Why me?". Tour guide chuckled, "If you come into the van, we'll have to tie you to the roof because there's no space. Hur hur." It's really not that funny. And not a good explanation too, since he could have asked the greasy haird solo traveller instead. He clearly didn't make any friends during the trip. I didn't put up much of a fight, and obediently went along. And because of my quick departure, I didn't manage to grab the contact details from any of my new found friends. *cue sad violin music*
The story is long, and I'm gonna just call this part 1. Stay tuned to part 2.
I think it's about time to make good my promise to update at least one of my trips, and I shall start with the earlier one - Vietnam!
Frankly I didn't quite enjoy Hanoi as much as I'd thought I would. I actually returned from the trip more exhausted than I had left for it.
It was a 3-day-2-night trip and I had arrived in Hanoi on a Thursday night - 8pm. The itinerary was to tour the area and acclimatize myself as well as scout for travel deals for a 2D1N trip to Halong Bay, one of the must-not-miss sights in the outskirts of Hanoi. According to the conceirge at my hotel, most of the local sights (at least those that require some sort of admission into some sort of building) were closed on Fridays. Since I had only budgeted for 1 day to do the city tour, that left me with no choice but to book the Halong Bay trip for the next day, and tour Hanoi city when I return. And here's the kicker: ALL the tour agencies were closed by 8pm. So left with not much in the way of choice, I had to book the trip with the hotel.
2 reasons why that was the W-R-O-N-G move.
1. I got ripped off by a good USD $25-35, depending on whether you choose to believe that the dodgy travel agency is farming out the trip to a more experienced company and not doing it themselves, or not.
2. The "tour agency" at my hotel treated me REALLY REALLY shabbily. I shall explain point 2.
From Hanoi city to the wharf where we take a junk boat to Halong Bay is 3 hour bus ride. I had expected to be on the same bus as the two Canadian ladies I had made friends with at breakfast, where we found out we had booked the same trip. BUt no. Since I Was a lone traveller, they took it upon themselves to squeeze me into the front seat of an already-full minivan so as to maximize seating. Not the comfy sort of front seat, mind you. I was squashed between the driver and the tour guide. It was so uncomfortable that it's seriously not funny. And naturally, the ang moh ladies sat in some other comfy van lah.
You know the important thing about travelling solo, kids, is to make friends. This widens your horizons and allows you to meet new people and learn interesting stuff about their culture. So imagine my irritation when my new friends were callously ripped away from me (though I don't think they felt a similar connection, but hey! I was alone and needy!). I was too shocked to protest, and by the time I had recovered from that, I was already in the van.
Like any streetsmart traveller worth her salt, I quickly bounced back and got to know 3 Kiwis - Eamann, Caroline and Steve. (No I didn't go to the local Cold Storage and buy fruits. Kiwis are people from New Zealand.) And don't ask me why I hang out with the angmohs. Seriously, it wasn't intentional. Eamann (pronounced eh-men) was really nice and super friendly. Even when we played cards and Steve was trash-talking him and he was losing rather badly, he was really good natured about everything. When Steve was like, "Eamann, may I have your XXX card (which was the final card to cement Steve's utter and absolute victory)", Eamann was like, "yes you may". I'd be like, "KNN WTF you wanna take my card. No! I'm not giving you my fkg card. In fact, I'm not playing with you anymore! &*#@#$^@%" and so on.
So we hung out. And to be fair, Halong Bay was breathtaking. Pause for pictures.
Back to my narration about how I got stiffed by the Vietnamese.
When I booked the trip with the moron at Conceirge, I chose to stay in a shared room, because it would otherwise be an additional USD17 to sleep in a room by myself, and I didn't mind a room mate to get to know. I had asked specifically if it would be a female room mate. "Yeah yeah, of course", said the moron.
So imagine my surprise - wait, make that horror - when I found out that I was going to share a room with a greasy haired PRC-looking 40-year-old-looking man. I was apparently not the only one horrified by the prospect, because Eamann was raising hell about how that arrangement was completely ludicrous. I actually said that I would pay the additional USD17 for the single room. The tour guide protested, saying that they didn't have any more rooms available. (It turned out that there were 3 more empty rooms on the junk, so believe you me, I don't understand why he said that.) In any case, after Eamann's hissy fit, I got to stay in a double room by myself, *grinz*, at no additional charge, *double grinz*. So at least one effort to mistreat me was thwarted. Vietnamese kow tow to the angmohs, it seems.
Our little group of 4 grew to include 3 Brit girls and an American guy. We had shitloads of fun and on the last day, the tour guide came up to the group and pointed to me. "You'll be taking another van on the way back". Now, obviously surprised that I was singled out yet again to be ill treated, I was more or less mute (As you can tell, my reflexes aren't great, and I have the word PATSY tatooed in invisible ink on my forehead.) I dumbly and quite impotently asked, "Why me?". Tour guide chuckled, "If you come into the van, we'll have to tie you to the roof because there's no space. Hur hur." It's really not that funny. And not a good explanation too, since he could have asked the greasy haird solo traveller instead. He clearly didn't make any friends during the trip. I didn't put up much of a fight, and obediently went along. And because of my quick departure, I didn't manage to grab the contact details from any of my new found friends. *cue sad violin music*
The story is long, and I'm gonna just call this part 1. Stay tuned to part 2.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Yeah, go on your stupid vacation
As has been the trend lately since my new colleague joined recently, I got bullied at work today. Naturally I was extremely angsty.
This is an exerpt of a conversation between a friend and I today, about that LB (lying bastard - He has a dishonest streak)
Me: Yay! LB next week gone!
YC: where he gg
Me: I dunno and I dun give a fk.
Me: I hope he goes to Afghanistan.
Me: Or west bank.
Me: Or nigeria.
Me: Stay at a hotel near the pipelines.
YC: doesnt take very much to make u happi hor
Me: Hahha. Yeah. I not very ambitious.
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
Friday, September 04, 2009
Directions
At drinks, I mentioned to my CEO that I wouldn't mind a one-year internship in the US. He surprised me by actually thinking that that'd be a good idea. If he follow through on that (which would be a HUGE surprise), I'll be packing my bags for LA.
Part of me wishes BP or Shell or really, some *other* independent, would hurry up and offer me a jr positon. Part of me wishes the LA thing'll really happen.
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Accenture's Ad for Dress code at work place
We had this quite funny email exchange, that started with this email, which I had forwarded to everyone.
Accompanying the email, I had written:
Ronnie cannot work in Accenture. (Ronnie typically wears quite revealing clothes.)
Josiah replies:
Hmm I know of a place Ronnie can work at…3rd floor! (It's a sleazy KTV)
Gin answers:
but...... only during this month she can work there (for posterity, this month is the hungry ghost month)
Naturally Ronnie was *not* very happy with the e-suanning. Wahahhaa.
Accompanying the email, I had written:
Ronnie cannot work in Accenture. (Ronnie typically wears quite revealing clothes.)
Josiah replies:
Hmm I know of a place Ronnie can work at…3rd floor! (It's a sleazy KTV)
Gin answers:
but...... only during this month she can work there (for posterity, this month is the hungry ghost month)
Naturally Ronnie was *not* very happy with the e-suanning. Wahahhaa.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Dream jobs and such
Was just talking to Adrian. I love his enthusiasm. Just the pertinent bits though. I don't want him to stop talking to me thinking everything he says will be published! Hahah!
Adrian Koh says: need to work hard to be there. it's like being at the forefront playing with emerging tech and new ideas.
Eelin says: Hahha. Sounds like a playground for you! You know that they say if you love your job, you don't have to work a single day in your life.
Adrian Koh says: you'll be compelled to work every single moment,really, but all that time you won't believe that somone is actually paying you for it
Wow. Can you believe that feeling? What bliss! My job borders on what
is my dream job. But not. quite. there. yet.
Adrian Koh says: need to work hard to be there. it's like being at the forefront playing with emerging tech and new ideas.
Eelin says: Hahha. Sounds like a playground for you! You know that they say if you love your job, you don't have to work a single day in your life.
Adrian Koh says: you'll be compelled to work every single moment,really, but all that time you won't believe that somone is actually paying you for it
Wow. Can you believe that feeling? What bliss! My job borders on what
is my dream job. But not. quite. there. yet.
