Little & Often

It has been absolutely ages since the last post, which is shameful, and I apologise to anyone who may actually read this. I would like to blame the baby, because he is the world's best excuse for anything (late to meet friends? Last minute poo. Unshaved legs? Have been spending time with the baby, who gives back more harumph. Late to work? Baby pooed in my hair), but this time it's all on me. I've been working hard at getting my life back to balanced, which means more of these:

Malteser and Toblerone martinis at V13 (photo is Resident Froggie's)

Dinner parties at Casa JamTam

Dinner at my favourite HK restaurant

Time at Angel's Share (photo is Resident Froggie's)

It feels good to get life back on track, even if in a compromised fashion. I can't bear to be away from RJ for too long, and only manage to survive work thanks to the wonder that is the ipcam. When I go out for a drink, I'm a two drink girl these days. After the time I had one whisky and RJ threw up after he was breastfed five hours later (surely unrelated), I haven't really felt the draw of a night on the tiles. Though there are times when I'm relieved to get away. Apart from breastfeeding being akin to being flayed (no joke), I've had some fairly strange low points. These have included poo in freshly washed hair following a projectile moment. Warm vomit into my mouth when I was playing with him after a feed. I am almost totally inured against bodily functions now. So goes parenthood.

Professionally speaking, things have been going positively. I had been concerned that losing braincells through my breasts would mean that I would struggle at work. Thankfully not, though it was touch and go for a little while when I seemed to be employing baby talk in meetings. In fact, my brain has recovered sufficiently well for me to look to further my education. If all goes to plan, I will be starting school just after RJ does. In fact, if all goes to plan, we will be relocating to Singapore and then starting school mid 2012. Finally! The Hong Kong waiting game is almost over.

In fact, I'm in Singapore at the moment. One of the advantages (?) of decent cable and television is that there is more inane television to choose from. My parents are currently obsessed with a particular show called "India", which is potentially worse for my braincells than breastfeeding. It is a Brazilian soap opera (apparently now referred to as telenovellas) that is set in India. The cast wear saris and say things like "arrey baba". It may well be the worst thing for India since poverty. Still, at least I get to watch X-Factor and speculate on Saula.

StressFest

Last night I went to a training event on Stress Management, run by Frances Hall of Corbar Consulting. I've always thought that I was a pretty laid back person. I generally love my life, and though I do think I work more than I should, I also party more than most. I sometimes overstretch, but this tends to be more because there's so much fun stuff to do than because I'm stressed. I've also always thought that I'm fairly self-aware. Imagine my surprise, then, at the results of a test, which I call "Are you bovvered?", because the scoring criteria was:
Scoring - 5 if bothered by this nearly all the time
- 4 if bothered by this rather often
- 3 if bothered by this sometimes
- 2 if bothered by this rarely
- 1 if never bothered by this.

Similar test (different scoring) here.

Anyhow, I scored 58 out of a possible 90, with 45 being a high score. Jeez! I was off the scale compared to the others in the room. I didn't expect that at all.

Then we had to rank what was stressing us out. Mine was
- alopecia (viscious cycle there!)
- new job
- old job (which I think may just mean job)
- house move
- weight (vicious cycle again!)
- friends
- debt
- spending (and again...)
- achieving

... all of which, I think, means I'm screwed! Everything is interlinked. Talk about the perfect paradox.

Actual Dillemma

Where has the better green sauce?

Assenheim's 56 or l'entrecote?

Standing at the Lift Lobby at Work

I was dashing off to a meeting in one of the stupid number of buildings my employer has when I ended up waiting in a lift lobby with a guy who was singing to himself. By singing I mean caterwauling. The first thing he brought to mind was the dude who wanted to be Mimi on the X-factor.

SF: Morning. You do realise you're singing out loud, right?
Mimi: No.

... (time passes. He starts again)

SF: You're doing it again. It's not very good.

Mimi exits via fire escape.

I feel mean, but no way I was going to get in a lift with him. What if it broke down and we were trapped for hours?!

Your Money or Your Life

I am sitting in the midst of a fire alarm. When it went off everyone started complaining since it was viewed as a hoax. Then suddenly it was announced to be legit. A couple of people logged off so they wouldn't auto-execute in the markets if we were evacuated and are waiting to see if it was genuinely legitimate. Everyone else frantically got their orders out, in case there was an evacuation. The rest stayed where they were.

All about priorities...

SchizoFrinia

This day started out badly. I've been pushing my ability to not sleep to the limit this week and am running on caffeine alone. Unfortunately, I had a counterparty meeting at nine, and had to pull myself together. I was a little nervous about it since I didn't think I was going to astound them with my coherence and capability, but then I saw this and decided it would all be alright.



I love Hackers and so thought this was excellent. It was randomly on the back of a street sign outside a (soon to be "inspired by") Starbucks in the City.

The meeting actually went really well, though I think I'll be busy on the back of it. I had a little bit of a bounce in my step on the way back to the office, where I found this on my desk:


If you know me, you'll know that I am obsessed by stationery and so that little blue box (Tiffany's? Pah!) almost gave me palpitations. Here's what was in it (no messy desk comments please!)



It was a birthday gift from two of my favourite colleagues, and I can't wait to fill it out!



Then at lunch, the day just turned to crap. I offered this piece of feedback to a noodle chain I've always thought was overated:
Please don't feel it necessary to respond to this, but I thought I'd outline the experience I've had today.

I called to order take out at 11. I was told the restaurant was not opened yet, so please call at 1130.

I called at 1130. Part of my order included Chilli Beef Ramen, to be substituted to Soba. I was told there was no beef that day. At all.

I arrived to collect my order at 12 as agreed. There was a four man deep queue all being ignored by the manager, who was trying to fix the till. We waited for 15 minutes before eventually being assisted by any of the 5 staff in the area.

When I returned to the office, I discovered that the noodles were a congealed mass about the consistency of polenta. Soba doesn't ever achieve that, so the order was clearly wrong. Beyond that though, it was exceptionally sub standard. If the issue was that the incorrect noodle, which I think must have been ramen, was left to stew in the hot soup and so turned into glue, the solution would be to have the noodles served on the side for take out.

Here is my memory, which I will be sharing with my office.


They called me and offered me vouchers. I declined. They insisted.


Then, all of a sudden, the day took a bounce. The completion date for our new pad moved forward. We'll be homeowners in October, yay!

Work Chat

In response to a reminder about birthday drinks at the Light Bar

A: you wouldn't mind if i brought a heir of some oil empire in russia would you?
SF: is that a trick question? Because I don't actually object to money and power.

Victim of Prolepsis

Prolepsis was my word for the day two days ago, which is sort of fitting, given that I had this conversation with the man who is about to become my future manager.

MAN: I was thinking...
MAN: And this isn't about you, but ...
SF: You should know that that line that preceeds the end of any functioning relationship.
MAN: ... I think this might be too big a job for one person.
SF: You do know I haven't started, right?

What links Trading and 90s rap?

Extracted from an online chat through a well known data vendor, which records all conversations and is an approved forum for the negotiation and confirmation of trades.

SF: Just sent an MOC basket. 50 names, XXXX shares. XXX sell is LONG.
Counterparty: and strong! and bound to get the friction on!
SF: Don't ever compare me to the rest, they'll all get sliced and diced, competition's paying the price

This is what all those years of education gets

Things Not To Say At Work 1

SF: do you know who replaced Jared in currency structuring
K: ah, let me think
K: Steve is looking into the books now
SF: darling?
K: starling, yes
SF: like in silence of the lambs, cool
K: exactly
K: also that frightening
SF: girls think he's sexy!
SF: Hannibal, that is.. not buffalo bill

***

UPDATE: Apparently one of those days. This is between my friend and her trading manager.

TM: I don't care if you don't like listening to bullshit, at least let me finish..
Friend: I don't like listening to bullshit